Realizing My Grandfather’s Sailing Dreams

When Covid hit, we already had the boat, so we only had to throw the lines

Inside the Burns Unit

How Scotland’s national poet brought solace at a time of pain and isolation

Reading Thucydides in a Time of Pandemic

What the Athenian historian’s insights predict about the future of our own democracy

Wave to Me

There’s one thing I won’t relinquish to a pandemic that’s claimed so much

The Plague Year

The more things change, the more they stay the same

On Hugging

What we lose when we can’t get close to the ones we love

The Pandemic Mood

Who created it and how it is maintained

Mad Dogs and Transcendentalists

How the individualism of Emerson and Thoreau differs from today’s libertarianism

Back to School

A return to reading as a private and a public act

Facing Death at the Ends of the Earth

The discovery of the world’s oldest rock offers a hefty dose of perspective

The Madman in the Mansion

Where he comes from and why he must be unseated

Off Broadway

Remembering those hallowed days of New York theater

Tree of Life

Being home for the holidays means something different this year

My Fax Friends

Preserving a slipping-away past

London Without its Landmarks

A mournful silence in the Stage City

Dusting Off a Classic

Who was Kressmann Taylor, author of a forgotten story of a friendship destroyed by the advent of the Nazis?

A Turkey of a Holiday

Giving thanks at the kids’ table

Off the Beaten Path

After four decades, seeing Central Park with fresh eyes

Covid Fatigue on the Continent

In Europe, pandemic restrictions are returning after a summer of eating, drinking, and vacationing

Smoke Out

Lighting up as the world is burning down

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