This past week broke records for the hottest days in about 125,000 years. Depressing. Exhausting to think about. No wonder we don’t feel like cooking. So here are 24 easy-to-prepare, no-cooking menus (and some after-dinner reading).
Mental Clarity
My cell phone was right here. Where did it go?” This is one reason I keep a landline: to call my cell. (It's usually inches away, under papers.) So this seemed like a good day to remember to revisit Mental Clarity
My cell phone was right here. Where did it go?” This is one reason I keep a landline: to call my cell. (It’s usually inches away, under papers.) So this seemed like a good day to remember to revisit Mental Clarity
Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock [Book Review]
Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957. 15-year-old Elizabeth was one of nine African American students trying to integrate a high school. Hazel, a white girl standing right behind her, shrieked: “Go home, n---! Go back to Africa!” At that moment, a photographer snapped their picture. This book is their history.
Little Rock, Arkansas, 1957. 15-year-old Elizabeth was one of nine African American students trying to integrate a high school. Hazel, a white girl standing right behind her, shrieked: “Go home, n—! Go back to Africa!” At that moment, a photographer snapped their picture. This book is their history.
Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid ‘We are all migrants through time.’
“I wanted to portray migrants as heroes, not criminals. But more than that, I wanted to show that everyone is a migrant, even those who never move geographically, because moving through time, aging, is itself a form of migration."
Mother’s Day. I was about to feature Colette’s charming memoir about her mother. It ends in 1928. Then I saw a news story about America in 2023, and I remembered a more relevant book…
The Good Earth: The 1931 Page-Turner Novel that Was The One Book About China Everyone Had to Read
It won the Pulitzer Prize. It won the Nobel. It was anointed by Oprah. And when I was 12, I couldn’t put this 1931 novel about China down. I still can't.
It won the Pulitzer Prize. It won the Nobel. It was anointed by Oprah. And when I was 12, I couldn’t put this 1931 novel about China down. I still can’t.
Weekend Butler: ‘Death? No Big Deal. Just a Change of Clothes.’ Plus, Bryan Cranston’s Retirement, Paul McCartney Writes a ‘Get Back’ in 2 and a Half Minutes. And Gazpacho.
"Time will say nothing but I told you so" -- W. H. Auden
Death? No big deal. Just a change of clothes
Somerset Maugham: The Moon and Sixpence
What if, in mid-life, you suddenly decided to blow up your settled life and become a painter? You’d be Paul Gauguin. And you’d be under the microscope of Somerset Maugham. Prepare to be challenged.
What if, in mid-life, you suddenly decided to blow up your settled life and become a painter? You’d be Paul Gauguin. And you’d be under the microscope of Somerset Maugham. Prepare to be challenged.
Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being
Andrew Weil’s good news: If you’re smart and careful and active and lucky, you will “live as long and as well as possible, then have a rapid decline at the end of life. The goal is compression of morbidity, not life extension.”
Andrew Weil’s good news: If you’re smart and careful and active and lucky, you will “live as long and as well as possible, then have a rapid decline at the end of life. The goal is compression of morbidity, not life extension.”
Boz Scaggs: Consider It a ‘Cult Classic’
It’s been called “one of the best albums never heard outside San Francisco.” Listen to Boz Scaggs and Duane Allman, with Boz on his knees -- “Somebody loan me a dime/ I need to call my old time used to be”--- and you just might share the link with friends who have ears.
Wednesday Butler: It’s been called “one of the best albums never heard outside San Francisco.” Listen to Boz Scaggs and Duane Allman, with Boz on his knees — “Somebody loan me a dime/ I need to call my old time used to be”— and you just might share the link with friends who have ears.
Thich Nhat Hanh: Teachings on Love
Tuesday Head Butler: In the novel I’m writing, a man’s life is transformed by… I shouldn’t say. What I can say is the most useful book I’ve read is by a celibate Buddhist monk.
Tuesday Head Butler: In the novel I’m writing, a man’s life is transformed by… I shouldn’t say. What I can say is the most useful book I’ve read is by a celibate Buddhist monk.
Father’s Day 2023: Cheap and Cheerful
This Father’s Day, I think: Conserve resources. Go “cheap and cheerful.” But spend lavishly on emotions: a note, thanks, love.
This Father’s Day, I think: Conserve resources. Go “cheap and cheerful.” But spend lavishly on emotions: a note, thanks, love.
Weekend Butler: Do You Have/Need an Air Purifier? Van Gogh’s Cypresses and a Van Gogh Movie. A Teacher’s “Lesson Plan.” Ban the Bible in Schools? Shrimp Salad. And More.
I wrote about the Levoit Air purifier in January of 2021. If you can remember what our lives were like then, you’ll understand why many of you bought one.
I wrote about the Levoit Air purifier in January of 2021. If you can remember what our lives were like then, you’ll understand why many of you bought one.
“Everyone” Watched “Succession”— But Was It a Success?
A few days after the final episode of “Succession,” I asked a culturally savvy, critically astute friend what she thought of it. She hadn’t watched it. More surprising, she’d never heard of it.
A few days after the final episode of “Succession,” I asked a culturally savvy, critically astute friend what she thought of it. She hadn’t watched it. More surprising, she’d never heard of it.
We Were Soldiers Once . . . And Young: La Drang—the Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam
Hal Moore was a great military leader. That’s not the reason to open this review. The 3-minute video is. Whatever your life is like, you can learn from it --- and be inspired.
Memorial Day: Hal Moore was a great military leader. That’s not the reason to open this review. The 3-minute video is. Whatever your life is like, you can learn from it — and be inspired.
Ronald K. Fried on Martin Amis (1949 – 2023): “As a Devoted Reader of His Work, I Am in Mourning.”
Martin Amis is dead. As a devoted reader of his work, I am in mourning.
Martin Amis is dead. As a devoted reader of his work, I am in mourning.
Rewriting Illness: A View of My Own by Elizabeth Benedict [Book Review]
You can whip through “Rewriting Illness” in an evening. Short chapters with snappy titles transform a book about cancer into a thriller with a happy ending. How rare. How terrific.
You can whip through “Rewriting Illness” in an evening. Short chapters with snappy titles transform a book about cancer into a thriller with a happy ending. How rare. How terrific.