Every once in a while, when I'm in the basement and can see the foundations of our two-flat, or rummage in a closet and notice a crack in the plaster [...]
The other day, I was talking with some friends about movies, and somehow the conversation got onto the film "Elf." There was a point I wanted to make about the [...]
"Orare est laborare." That's the motto of the Benedictine order. It means: Working is praying. By most accounts, Abraham Lincoln wasn’t terribly interested in organized religion. But that’s not to [...]
I grew up in the Austin neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago. I am the oldest of 14 children, and one of my jobs, growing up, was to watch [...]
Chad Harbach's intention in "The Art of Fielding" seems to be to subvert the traditional sports story — boy of great talent hones his craft, reaches heights, stumbles but learns [...]
A half century ago, John F. Kennedy was elected the first Catholic President of the United States because he convinced American voters that he wouldn't take orders from the Pope. [...]
When she and her husband Joseph were murdered on an isolated stretch of beach, Celice's body fell onto the sand, upending a dune beetle and trapping him in the folds [...]
Reading the last line of Alan Bennett's "The Uncommon Reader," I laughed out loud. I can't guarantee you will, but I suspect you will find this short 2007 novel funny [...]
Okay, so I'm a 10-year-old boy at heart. I found the 2010 movie "How to Train Your Dragon," starring Jay Baruchel as the hapless Hiccup, endlessly droll, inventive, touching and [...]
When Reay Tannahill began working on the book that became "Food in History," she was entering virgin territory. No one before her had attempted to chronicle the relationship of humans [...]