In which I explain to Ross Douthat that we cannot make pop culture great again β but that’s okay! There’s good news!
Dennis Overbye is retiring, which mens he has to give up his business card that identifies him as the New York Times Cosmic Affairs Correspondent.
β©οΈ View of snow at Benten HIll, KinryΕ«zan Temple, Asakusa, 1853, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797β1861). Woodblock print. From the Ashmolean’s Advent Calendar. Not very Adventish, but very cool.
Another Clare Barry piece, this one a stylized image of Oxford’s lovely Botanic Garden.
Clare Barry has designed postage stamps for a certain imaginary country.
Every night I unplug my Precious Moments-style nativity scene, and every morning I re-inflate it. As it rises up again, often Mary’s headscarf β which is meant to drape over her shoulders and hang down to her waist β gets out of position, sometimes covering her face. I surprise myself by the tenderness with which I set it in its right place, smoothing it down, revealing once more her smiling praying face. But it’s the least I can do for her, considering what she has done for me.
The Chicago Tribune has named my staggeringly talented friend and former colleague Shawn Okpebholo Chicagoan of the year in classical music.
Either Adam Roberts and I happened to be writing about The Mill on the Floss at the same time or he is surreptitiously arguing with me.