This weekend I saw the Korean film Poetry, written and directed by Lee Chang-dong. The movie follows Mija, an elderly woman just diagnosed with early stage Alzheimer’s. She lives with her louse of a grandson (as my friend labeled him) Wook, a lazy, affectless teenage boy who never thanks her for anything. Mija learns that […]
MoreA few weeks after the Academy Awards comes another awards event. Fortunately no one honored is in danger of being insulted by Ricky Gervais. A perk of not being alive. Inspired by a New York Times list of the top ten composers of all time (Bach, not Mozart headed that controversial list), University of […]
MoreTomorrow, March 8, is Fat Tuesday, a single day of excess before forty days of sacrifice and deprivation. Here in Michigan the holiday is called Pazcki Day in honor of the jelly doughnuts everyone gobbles down. But not for me. The day I say It’s Pazcki Day! instead of Yes, I’m eating five Peppermint Patties […]
MoreI gave up writing rhymed poetry a long time ago. In grade school I composed limericks about other people at recess (not an avenue to popularity, believe me); in college I once wrote a truly awful sonnet that included the word “manacle,” and to my everlasting shame, I entered it in a poetry contest. […]
MoreThe brutal assault on journalist Lara Logan during the Tahrir Square celebration of the Egyptian revolution shocks and repulses. (Surrounded by a mob of 200 men, Logan was separated from her crew, stripped and beaten. A group of Egyptian women and soldiers came to her rescue.) Some shocking and repulsive reactions to her ordeal […]
MoreHere’s a sampling of the Valentine’s Day cards I’m sending to my friends: I found these retro Valentine’s Day cards on line. I love them because they’re corny and sweet but mostly because they’re not associated with any advertising campaign like the Hello Kitty or Barbie or Toy Story valentines that drugstores shelve this time […]
MoreThe other night I made a discovery at the library. It was the most excited I’d been at the library since I got a $25 fine waived by a sympathetic clerk who had no knowledge of my shameful history of overdue books. My heart was pumping happily along as the discovery unfolded before me, until […]
MoreThe other day I posted but didn’t analyze a poem by Carl Sandburg. (The poem begins Hog butcher for the world, which might be a fun way to answer the phone when telemarketers call.) Did Carl Sandburg’s name ring a bell with you? If you experienced not a clang but only a faint tinkle from […]
MoreYesterday I posted Vladimir of Lviv’s imitation poem of Carl Sandburg’s “Chicago.” (Vladimir is a student in my sister Ceci’s ESL conversation class. All the students were asked to write a poem about home using Sandburg’s poem as a model.) Today I’ll highlight excerpts from a few more student works. I wish I […]
MoreTwo stories to begin the new year: When I was young and sometimes cruel, I played a trick on my little sister. I tracked her down in the neighborhood and told her that our father had been looking all over for her and was really, really mad that she wasn’t home. What got me […]
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