For March 2006
A new month of what the writers have been watching, reading, eating, drinking, hearing, and enjoying.
Of Recent Note
A collection of 197 issues
For February 2006
What the writers have been enjoying, watching, reading, hearing, eating, viewing, and digesting for the past 28 days.
The Beginning of Spring
In 1998 Penelope Fitzgerald won the NBCC Award for The Blue Flower. Since then, many of my friends have read that book as their introduction to her and been confused, or worse, underwhelmed. I always recommend starting with The Beginning of Spring, the story of Englishman Frank Reid, proprietor of
Girlfriends
Girlfriends, on UPN, could have been another empty yuppie comedy, a black woman’s Sex in the City. Instead, the sitcom about four female black professionals in L.A. is witty, smart and original, and it plays with race and class without relying on dry stereotypes. Luckily, the show will
Literature Is Freedom
In 2003 when Susan Sontag won the Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels, the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, her acceptance speech—delivered in Frankfurt at a ceremony boycotted by the U.S. ambassador—was entitled “Literature is Freedom.” Almost no American media noted her award or cited any portions
Cottage Cheese
It was with surprise that I discovered cottage cheese a few weeks ago. My mother says I ate it as a child, but I don’t remember. So cheap, so versatile, and with so much protein (more than yogurt or peanut butter)—this is good food, and you can sprinkle
Arthur and George
Arthur and George by Julian Barnes is a potboiler, a thoughtful thriller, a shirttails-grabbing day-ruining page-turner, a piece of very good fiction, a careful portrait of two men’s very different lives entwined, a magnifying glass applied to faith and justice, another happy pill for Sherlockians in
Les Perles de la Couronne
As charming as it is inaccurate, Les Perles de la Couronne makes a mockery of European history in three languages. The film has a literary playfulness found in the best early cinema and the humor manages to be mean and light hearted at the same time. Though the story is
Open Source
Christopher Lydon, former New York Times man, former local TV news anchor, and one-time Boston mayoral candidate and his able crew have ventured into a compelling hybrid of radio and new media. Open Source combines broadcasts of Lydon’s dialogues with smart people on wide-ranging topics with a
Udderly Smooth Udder Cream
As a young child, I was shocked and horrified to learn that the lotion my father regularly applied to his hands was, in fact, udder cream. As in it had the word “teat” on the label. Years later, I find out he was on to something. Udderly Smooth Udder Cream