On Tuesday evening, President Obama spoke to an audience that included over 4,000 West Point cadets—the future officer corps of the US Army—and announced his intentions to dispatch 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan. This rapid escalation in deployments will bring the number of American troops serving there to nearly 100,000. In the [...]
On a cold, starry night twenty years ago, thousands of Germans flooded the streets to dance and sing and cry—and to climb the wall that scarred the heart of a once-proud city for nearly thirty years. The hours in which the cement and barbed wire came tumbling down [...]
I just saw the movie adaptation of The Time-Traveler’s Wife, the best-selling novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Eric Bana was the only reason I don’t regret buying the ticket. I’d had such high hopes because the novel was so compelling. It seemed like it [...]
I should like Ted Kennedy. He was a prolific legislator, and I like nothing better than having as many active writing projects as I can fit into my life. He spent decades in a public service job, and working for the public good is a value I cherish. He [...]
Fenton Johnson is the author of two novels (Crossing the River (1989) and Scissors, Paper, Rock (1993)), the critically acclaimed memoir Geography of the Heart (1996), and the nonfiction Keeping Faith: A Skeptic’s Journey (2003). His work has been widely anthologized and published [...]
Caster Semenya crosses the finish line. José Sena Goulão / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
When South Africa’s Caster Semenya stepped onto the track at the recent World Championships in Athletics for the final round of the women’s 800 meter race, she likely did not imagine that [...]
Juan Francisco Lladó Sabater / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Like millions of other Americans, I love to run. I do it for exercise, yes, but also because I just can’t stop. The endorphin buzz of a good run is almost impossible to describe. It gets me outside in Chicago winters, [...]
Summer holidays are good for many things: sleeping in, time in the sun, and, for some people, writing. Nearly 200 years ago, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley used her summer travels to Switzerland to develop the idea that eventually became Frankenstein.
When it was first published anonymously in [...]
Thomas Friedman had an interesting column in the New York Times on Sunday, titled “Teacher, Can We Leave Now? No.” His commentary touches on many of the most difficult questions currently facing American politicians and military strategists: what is happening in Afghanistan, what is our role in the process, [...]
I walked into my neighborhood Borders last Friday—I love that my neighborhood store is the one on the corner of Michigan Ave in downtown Chicago—intending to purchase a book. One book. A hardcover, yes, so a bit of an indulgence for my student [...]
As a little girl watching Perry Mason re-runs, Sonia Sotomayor could not have imagined the scrutiny that would one day be leveled at her entire judicial record. Yet even though she is on track to become one of a very elite group of nine, she is by no means alone [...]
I know it’s silly and not realistic and more than a little soap opera-ish, but I’ll admit it: I’m kind of addicted to Grey’s Anatomy.
The show started during my first year of medical school, and I could measure the progress of my medical education by how many flaws I could [...]
With the running of the 134th Preakness Stakes at Baltimore’s famed Pimlico racetrack this past weekend, the world of thoroughbred racing (and perhaps the general public) seems to have fallen in love with a new heroine. On Saturday, Rachel Alexandra became the first filly in 85 years to beat the [...]
Sometimes it pays to be friends with a children’s librarian. Without the recommendation of someone who sees what gets published under the “Young Adult” label I would never have found The Book Thief, Australian native Markus Zusak’s second novel and one of the [...]
The winners of the 2009 Pulitzer prizes were announced yesterday, and I can’t help but wonder what the announcement—and implicit acknowledgement of what was considered newsworthy over the last year—says about the state of society and media.
It sure was a good year for the New York Times, as the [...]
“What’s the big deal with talking on the phone?” my Grandpa wanted to know.
“This text message thing is the death of grammar in this country!” exclaimed the former English professor, who wanted to know what “TTYL” meant, and rolled his eyes in exasperation when I translated.
“Your brother had 3,000 text [...]
For what seems like forever, I’ve been avoiding the stacks of books with those distinctive covers at the front of every Borders and Barnes and Noble. I rolled my eyes at the hordes of giggling (mostly girls) waiting in line for the movie. And with the recent release of the [...]
With the tragic death of Natasha Richardson earlier in the week, the world has lost a tremendously talented artist, an actress whose versatility allowed her to charm audiences, wow critics, and entertain viewers whether performing for the silver screen or on the stage. Although her career stretched for a remarkable [...]
Along with an estimated 50% of Americans, I took my chances with the flu shot this year. Unfortunately, the gamble didn’t pay off. I also suspect that the hospital bill for visiting the Emergency Room with a 104.1° fever and then being admitted for 48 hours will far outweigh the $25 fee [...]
It’s a strange time to live in Chicago. On the one hand, we have a new President who has filled much of the country, indeed, much of the world, with an almost palpable sense of hope and optimism.
On the other hand, we have our governor. Our defiant, conniving, artfully tousled [...]
The agony of what is unfolding in Gaza cannot be contained in a sentence or two or four, least of all by me. Yet a recent article in The Guardian notes that as an extension of a long and troubled history, both Palestinian and Israeli writers have turned [...]
There are moments in life when none of us—no matter how much we read or write in our regular lives—are particularly looking to be inspired by language. Standing in line at airport security during the travel madness that is the week between Christmas and New Year’s comes to mind as [...]
Your doctor needs a nap, according to a recent Institute of Medicine report titled Resident Duty Hours: Enhancing Sleep, Supervision, and Safety. The authors conclude that residents working a 30-hour shift should have a mandatory 5-hour sleep break after working for 16 hours.
As one of the National Academies of [...]
In the words of Edmund Pellegrino, the current chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, “To advance human good and avoid harm, biotechnology must be used within ethical constraints. It is the task of bioethics to help society develop those constraints and bioethics and, therefore, must be of concern [...]
