Magnificent Octopus

Clara saw what others couldn't. Like that little boy in The Sixth Sense , only instead of seeing ghosts, Clara saw good. Which was itsel...

Imagine a cheerful crowd of Leib Guard officers invading the imperial kitchens, holding the staff almost at gunpoint. Led, as ever, by Sveto...

"Summer is no fun without sloth," writes Charles Simic on The New York Review of Books blog. "Indolence requires patience — ...

Crazy. This summer is crazy. Crazy heat, crazy rain. Crazy schedule. Crazy mother-in-law, ensuring our well-laid plans turn to dust. One e...

"The vivid tulips eat my oxygen." Sylvia Plath reads "Tulips." Recorded in 1961. ( Text and background at Brain Pic...

I brought home a bouquet of peonies last week, deep raspberry pink, and I arranged them in the living room, near the entranceway. They ar...

A round-up of summer reading lists and some thoughts about them: What Does Your Summer Reading Say About You? We can't say for sure th...

Yesterday, I saw the Gandini Juggling show Smashed. It's not acrobatic or clowning-around juggling so much as it is a dance perform...

Settled in with my grilled cheese sandwich and beer, I'd watch Lex gamble away the morning, study the faces of the other players, and fl...

Prague Kafka gets a Google doodle on his 130th birthday. Poland Wisława Szymborska got a Google doodle on her 90th birthday yesterda...

It's a kind of Gödel, Escher, Bach 2.0. Watch this and you will become smarter (whether or not you understand it):

Another season of Mad Men has come and gone, and I thought it time to update the list of books (and poems, and other reading material) sight...

Outside on the summer veranda was a large snowdrift that the northwest wind had swept up in a bold curve, both playful and austere. A light,...

I fell into a vivid and deep sleep: I dreamed I was in literature class at my gymnasium; I was sitting, as usual, at the desk with Shtiurmer...

"You went to school," Lee said. "I mean, at some point. And it didn't suit you very well. They wanted too teach you thing...

Here's a neat way to think about it: The online dictionary is steampunk... Victorian design merged with modern propulsion... > On...

Amo Ergo Sum Because I love     The sun pours out its rays of living gold     Pours out its gold and silver on the sea. Because I love...

"The most fundamental thing about a person is desire. It defines them. Tell me what a person wants, truly wants, and I'll tell you ...

If Teddy ever cried when he was younger, Ursula could never bear it. It seemed to open up a chasm inside, something deep and dreadful and fu...

Here's one of the most interesting personality quizzes that I've ever seen: If words were weapons, which poet would you be? I don...