Dear President Putin,First, thanks for trying to get the chemical weapons removed from Syria. Infinitely better than an American air strike.But I’m writing in reference to your comments about American exceptionalism.When I first read yesterday’s op-ed, without first...
Some years ago I heard the author Russell Banks speak at Cincinnati’s Mercantile Library. He said something to the effect that 19thcentury Americans who could read and write deeply valued their ability to do so. They believed they had something to say – that...
As I watched the fear generated by the attacks in Paris morph into fear of Syrian refugees in America, I was curious to know more about Americans’ reactions to immigration over the years. When did it begin? At what point were there so many new arrivals that the...
Our friends down the Peninsula reminded us that we left “some sort of speaker” at their Little Cottage last year. They thought we might want to take it to the cottage we’re renting this month.Turns out it was the kind of speaker where you plug your iPhone into the...
Here is how Month Away starts: I finished Cutting for Stone last night. One of the best novels I’ve ever read. My husband and son, now headed back to Cincinnati, are taking it back to the library. [Tonight. Right?]This is my first hour of a month in Michigan.We’ve...
I went to hear a classical pianist last week – my first live classical music in many, many years. The concert reminded me that music, like words, can create meaning that goes far beyond what the writer intended.I grew up in a home where classical music played every...
