Nov 26, 2017

Observe the world with “the precision of a poet and the imagination of a scientist,” urges the writer and environmental advocate Miriam Horn, citing Nabokov. She is describing not just how to see but how to be. Her other philosophical advice: live like the Ponderosa pine. Is this metaphor or pantheism? A...

Nov 19, 2017

Some silicon valley companies make grandiose claims, but Chieh Huang, founder of the online retailer Boxed, is more modest: ”We’re not changing the world by selling toilet paper.” But perhaps he is – not with the products he sells but through the benefits he offers his workers. He calls Boxed, “a new-school...

Nov 11, 2017

The children of immigrants can be embarrassed by their parents’ ties to their homeland: “Speak English, Mama. We’re Americans now.” Freedom means shedding the oppressive past. But playwright NSangou Njikam sought freedom by embracing his history, tracing his roots to Cameroon, and taking an African name. Two...

Nov 5, 2017

Blindfold a child, put a bat in her hand, and promise her candy, a lot of candy. What could go wrong? Nothing, says novelist Francine Prose, author of the darkly delightful Mister Monkey, in a deft defense of pinatas. Plus: what to do when a neighbor has automatic weapons, poetry from Bob Holman who was entirely...