Essay: Believing in Movies
Through much of the 20th century, American movies acted as if sex didn’t exist. Oh, they’d hint at it, but film-makers feared being slapped down by those custodians of mainstream [...]
Sister Aches and Brother Pains
When I wake in the morning, Sister Aches and Brother Pains are there to greet me. Brother Death, sitting on a chair in the corner, gives me a smile and [...]
Book review: “At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past” by A. Roger Ekirch
I found A. Roger Ekirch’s At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past, published in 2004, endlessly fascinating — and endlessly irritating. What Ekirch set out to do in this book [...]
Book review: “When God Was a Little Girl” by David R. Weiss, illustrated by Joan Hernandez Lindeman
David R. Weiss tells a sweet story about a father and a young daughter in When God Was a Little Girl, playfully and joyfully illustrated by Joan Hernandez Lindeman. Yet, [...]
Poem: “Just one of those things”
Baubles, bangles and beads lay jangled together on the kitchen table. The boy gazed at the flash of color and then out into the night sky at the blue moon. [...]
The secret life of cemeteries
We’re entering the season of cemeteries, autumn when the leaves turn brown and fall from the trees like so many souls giving up the ghost. With Halloween, we’ll see a [...]
Book review: “The Shepherd’s Crown” by Terry Pratchett
Granny Weatherwax returned home from her work as a witch, the most powerful witch on the Discworld. She took a very short nap — “Granny Weatherwax allowed herself not forty [...]
Poem: “Magnificat”
Magnificat By Patrick T. Reardon My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. --- Luke 1: 46-55 I am God’s magnifying glass. My heart thrills. [...]
Book review: “Hild” by Nicola Griffith
The Catholic Church is big on books about the Lives of the Saints. There’s even a term for it: “hagiography.” Nicola Griffith’s 2013 novel Hild is the first of a [...]
A writing life
Richard M. Daley, the mayor of Chicago and the son of a Chicago mayor, is chatting in his private office on the 5th floor of City Hall with Robert Caro [...]