Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Pits

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Kathy

In his acceptance speech at the Democratic convention, Tim Walz described waiting to hear the results of his wife’s IVF treatments like this: “The pit in your stomach when the phone would ring, and the absolute agony when we heard … Continue reading →

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Come Together

Posted on August 30, 2024 by Kathy

After the 2016 election, my Pollyanna side (perpetually battling my inner Eeyore) posited a hopeful theory. Possibly, I thought to myself, Donald Trump will bring Americans together. Possibly, I thought, his very badness would open Republicans’ eyes, and we would, … Continue reading →

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Political Patois

Posted on August 7, 2024 by Kathy

The eye-opening content and transgressive humor of Tim Miller’s Why We Did It: A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell (2022) deserve attention, but they will have to wait for another day. Instead, I want to focus on Miller’s … Continue reading →

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Way More Than You Wanted to Know

Posted on July 10, 2024 by Kathy

Why is a cobbler both a delicious dessert and also a little old man hunched over his bench making shoes? Inquiring writers, enjoying the former, wanted to know. This is not a riddle. It’s a gnarly etymological question that I … Continue reading →

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Evil Little Goat

Posted on April 18, 2024 by Kathy

A recent Italian film has furnished us a perfect Wednesday Word: chimera. La Chimera, written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, stars Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles in The Crown) as a thief who, with fellow gang members, raids Etruscan tombs and … Continue reading →

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Are You Tanked Up?

Posted on April 7, 2024 by Kathy

Cleveland lies in the path of the April 8th solar eclipse, and everyone’s a-twitter, including Twitter. The Guardians’ home opener also happens today, and the big women’s college basketball championship games were here in Cleveland this weekend. Traffic will be … Continue reading →

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Parapros . . .What??

Posted on March 14, 2024 by Kathy

I never encountered paraprosdokian before, but I liked it as soon as we met. David Bordwell introduced us, by way of his 2016 book, The Rhapsodes: How 1940s Critics Changed American Film Culture. Bordwell, one of my husband’s favorite critics, … Continue reading →

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The Horseless Dashboard

Posted on March 6, 2024 by Kathy

The term dashboard dates from the 1840s or so. What? you exclaim. There were no cars in the 1840s! How could there have been dashboards? You’re right about cars, of course. Karl Benz developed the first car in Germany, acquiring … Continue reading →

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Baltimore Boys

Posted on March 5, 2024 by Kathy

I wrote about R. Eric Thomas here, describing Thomas’s hilarious take on Mister Rogers and the mythical land of Bubbleland in his book of essays, Here for It, or, How to Save Your Soul in America. Last week I read Thomas’s … Continue reading →

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Lots of Good Fun That Is Funny

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Kathy

Amid my interesting reading lately, I enjoyed revisiting a classic yesterday. Twice. The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house All that cold, cold, wet day. The opening pages of Dr. … Continue reading →

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