Journey to Istanbul
“Is Turkey a part of Europe or the Middle East?” I asked my fellow passengers as we waited for the plane to Istanbul. Two of them, Turks who graduated from Germany with degrees in Engineering,...
Month: February 2008
Peanut Butter and Magic
Why did I eat that doughnut? Why? What possessed me? I knew it looked sketchy, all sealed up in that plastic bag with a giant smiley face stamped on the front. My innards are so not smiling. Why...
Acting Like a Rectal Polyp Does not a Feminist Statement Make
Any good idea can get hijacked for the sake of advancing asininity, and feminism is no exception. Back in college, flyers tacked up on the walls of computer labs read that "feminism is the radical...
Election 2008, from the mouths of babes
Shockingly, my 15-year old son has recently become interested in politics. We’re not ready to take off the ski hat, cut our hair, pull up our pants, and don a coat and tie like Michael J. Fox in...
Krakow: from communist chic to copernicus
The fifth most visited city in Europe is the dragon city, otherwise known as beautiful Krakow. Its name dates back to a legend of a terrible dragon, defeated when a simple shoemaker named Krak...
Disliking the Demi-God: the Dalai Lama and the cult of personality
He's an informant for the FBI Whack the Dalai Lama - The Dickies, "Whack the Dalai Lama" Okay, I don't actually advocate harming the Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, and don't hold serious...
A Possible Peace Between Israel and Palestine: A Review
This is a review of A Possible Peace Between Israel and Palestine: An Insider's Account of the Geneva Initiative by Menachem Klein, translated by Haim Watzman. Columbia University Press. 2007. We are...
Sleepovers: Invented By Satan
Women have an incredible ability to block out memories of sever physical pain; how else can you explain the fact that many sign up to endure labor again by having more than one child? Surely it...
Superbowl Sociology and What It Means for the Human Species
The Patriots are 18-1; a man hides his face against my shoulder, because the world had suddenly become too much to bear. A few seconds ago, I was trying to eat two chicken drumsticks at the same...
“LOST”: Sublime Transcendence and… Hey Sawyer, Take That Shirt Off!
A lot of my intellectual friends (the sort of people who, with a dignified cough, announce that they do not "indulge in mass media entertainment," and other, less extreme types) repeatedly ask me why...