Feb 24Member-onlyThe 9 Stages of Losing Your iPhoneSTAGE 1 — Denial: You check your pockets, your bag, the pockets in your bag. You shake out your coat and your scarf. Your phone can’t be gone. It’s not possible. You’re on a train hurtling through the Connecticut night toward Grand Central Station, and you’ve left New Haven Union…Smartphones5 min readSmartphones5 min read
Feb 27, 2022Outdoor Dining and the NYC Street Life RevolutionEarly on in the pandemic — like very early on, hardly more than a few days in — when I had no idea what we were all in for, I wrote a hopeful meditation on the bright sides of the virus: the human connection we were forging across the globe…Outdoor Dining9 min readOutdoor Dining9 min read
Jan 18, 2022Stop the Penn Station Redevelopment Project: An Open Letter to New York Governor Kathy HochulDear Governor Hochul: I’m writing to strongly oppose the Penn Station Redevelopment Project proposed by your office. I’m a third-generation native New Yorker, and as part of my job as a college writing teacher, I study, write about, and teach urban history and urban planning. It is clear to me…Penn Station3 min readPenn Station3 min read
Mar 18, 2020Some Hopeful Viral TakeawaysThe dominant feelings during this Coronapocalypse, at least for me, are existential anxiety, the hunch that the end times are nigh, and fear for the people in my midst who are older or less healthy than I am. As a college teacher, I’m also feeling disoriented by campus closures, concerned…Coronavirus5 min readCoronavirus5 min read
Jan 16, 2019My Year of Not Buying BooksIn December 2017, the novelist Ann Patchett wrote an op-ed in the New York Times called “My Year of No Shopping.” I read it, then my husband, Will, read it, and then we looked at each other, and with a shrug, decided to do it. We would not shop in…Books9 min readBooks9 min read
Nov 10, 2018Dear Members of the NRA,This object you worship exists for one reason: to bring death to living things and people. It’s hard for me to understand why this killing machine invites your reverence and total devotion, but, ok, I’m willing to admit there are things I don’t understand in the world. So let’s say…Guns4 min readGuns4 min read
Sep 28, 2018Devil’s Triangle, IndeedSetting aside for a moment the question of whether Christine Blasey Ford is telling the truth (to me, it’s obvious that she is) and the perhaps even more important question of whether Brett Kavanaugh belongs on the Supreme Court (to me, it’s obvious that he doesn’t), the biggest reveal of…Politics3 min readPolitics3 min read
Apr 14, 2018The Trump Disaster: Why We Can’t (and Shouldn’t) Look AwayWhen you learn about the Holocaust as a post-World-War-II child, it sounds inconceivable. How can people in an otherwise civilized and cultured country have become such monsters? How could these events have happened so recently — in the middle of the 20th century? How can little Jewish children growing up…Politics5 min readPolitics5 min read
