One of the rarest religious experiences you can have in America is to join the Plain.
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Violet
Violet was born at 25 weeks and five days—more than three months ahead of her due date. This is a story about becoming parents in the face of uncertainty.
Olive Oil Trouble
Olive-oil fraud was already common in antiquity. Galen tells of unscrupulous oil merchants who mixed high-quality olive oil with cheaper substances like lard, and Apicius provides a recipe for turning cheap Spanish oil into prized oil from Istria using minced herbs and roots. The Greeks and the Romans used olive oil as food, soap, lotion, […]
‘The Good Is Elusive and Transitory in This World’
Artist and illustrator Maira Kalman on mistakes, optimism, and how art (and dogs) warm the soul.
The Cult Could Become a Church: On David Foster Wallace
If you’ve never heard of this acclaimed author, treasure your last moments of innocence; then, read this primer at Vulture on DFW’s contested legacy.
Misty Copeland’s Achievement and the Future of Ballet
“My goal is to become the first African-American principal dancer with A.B.T.” -That’s Misty Copeland, in a 2014 profile in The New Yorker. She was promoted on June 30, becoming the first African-American female principal dancer in the American Ballet Theater’s 75-year history. Copeland got her start in ballet when she was 13: Cantine had […]
Travel, Foreignness, and the Spaces in Between: A Pico Iyer Reading List
Seven reads by Pico Iyer on travel and finding one’s place in the world.
Violet
Violet was born at 25 weeks and five days—more than three months ahead of her due date. This is a story about becoming parents in the face of uncertainty.
Looking for Raymond Chandler’s Los Angeles
Tracing Raymond Chandler’s early days in L.A.
Loving Books in a Dark Age
In the “dark ages” of Europe, people began reading silently to themselves, and a love of books and learning took hold, pioneered by Bede.
