SONGKRAN
For three days every year, Thailand transforms into a wet and wild party, the Songkran Festival. But this ancient festival is far more than just …
AMERICAN ILLITERACY
Forty-eight million adults in the U.S. read at or below the third-grade level, to use the blog’s title here, American illiteracy. Many of these adults struggle …
PRITZKER
This blog is an article by Heather Cox Richardson on a spectacular speech by Illinois Governor JB Pritzker. I think it follows in the footsteps …
MELANCHOLY BUT POIGNANT
I could call this blog a melancholy but poignant moment that I should certainly take to heart far more often and, I suspect, many of …
CHARLES DARWIN
This story is about Charles Darwin, but it is also about an institution I have to admit I didn’t know existed, but I’m very glad …
WOODPECKER
A Coastal New England Town’s ‘Ornery’ Vandal: A Woodpecker. More than 20 vehicles in a town on Cape Ann, Mass., have been damaged by a …
DAVID BROOKS
The following column, written by David Brooks, a conservative in the traditional sense of the word, appeared in the New York Times last week. I …
PARIS
Cars have been banned from more than 100 streets in Paris. Tens of thousands of parking spots have been eliminated. Hundreds of miles of bike …
FRIEDMAN
I thought that this article by Thomas Friedman of the New York Times was an important analysis of the current political situation in the U.S. …
EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY
The relationship between education and democracy and the education levels of the electorate could not have been brought into sharper focus the political events of …