Monthly Archives: January 2009

Gustav Niebuhr: Beyond Tolerance

So when, exactly, is tolerance a bad, or at the very least counterproductive, thing? Former New York Times religion writer (and current Syracuse professor) Gustav Niebuhr sets out to answer that question in Beyond Tolerance: Searching for Interfaith Understanding in … Continue reading

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Blog Review: Strange Maps

I’ve always loved maps. Granted, sometimes a map is just a utilitarian thing, a means of getting from point A to point B without getting (more) lost. But the fun thing about atlases and especially about old maps (you know, … Continue reading

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Book Reivew: Freedom, Like it or Not

With the inauguration of Barack Obama looming, and soon-to-be ex-president Bush embarking on a round of image rehabilitation and retroactive whitewashing, it seems as good a time as any to look back over the Bush legacy and look ahead–create a … Continue reading

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Bailout Botheration

Those of you who contributed so generously last year to the floating hospital have probably wondered what became of the money. I was speaking on this subject only last week at our up-town branch, and, after the meeting, a dear … Continue reading

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Inspiration Index 9: No, But if You Hum a Few Bars…

I can’t tell you exactly the first time it happened, although it would’ve been some time around 1976 and Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life. The song was, and still is, “Ngiculela/Es Una Historia/I Am Singing” (a song, … Continue reading

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William Least Heat Moon’s Long and Winding “Roads”

William Least Heat-Moon’s Roads to Quoz is subtitled “An American Mosey.” While that’s appropriate enough, it’s equally applicable to his previous offerings, Blue Highways, PrairyErth, and River Horse. And therein lies, or doesn’t lie, the problem, depending on your particular … Continue reading

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Writing on Writing: Simplify

If you’re looking for advice on writing, there are innumerable books and articles on writing (Well, duh. –Ed.). Having said that, you can easily cut through all of them and narrow the whole pile down to just two items, one … Continue reading

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Book Review: History Repeating?

Odds are better than even that neither Susan Quinn nor Nick Taylor thought, much less knew, that their respective books on the WPA and the Great Depression would end up being quite so topical. Inadvertently or not, though, neither Taylor’s American Made: … Continue reading

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As the World (Re)turns

You wouldn’t think that the passing of a tabloid would have inspired so much press. But when the Weekly World News folded (pardon the pun) in 2007, sources as diverse as Wired and Reuters took notice. For 28 years, the WWN … Continue reading

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(Don’t) Stop the Presses!

Seven hundred billion for Wall Street? Check. Another twenty to thirty billion for the Big Three automakers? Well, maybe. A few billion for struggling newspaper and magazine publishers? Don’t hold your breath. Running a newspaper used to be practically a … Continue reading

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