If the universe had a mood, it would be Monday. Entropy marches, coffee cools, batteries drain, and socks vanish into an event horizon behind the washing machine. Against this cosmic backdrop, optimism can feel like a form of bad arithmetic. Yet here we are—hairless apes who invented anesthesia and sourdough starters—still arguing about whether the glass is half full, half empty, or a … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ As we study history together, I often show documentary films to my students. When these films are about the distant past, there is a voice (or person-moderator) who walks us through the information, using whatever illustrations can be mustered. But as we get nearer to modern times the documentaries come to life: actual human action in black and white. From the late 19th … Read the rest
By Eric Le Roy
Content 18+ Dylan Thomas had his Fern Hill, and I, poor beggar that I am, lay sentimental claim to Ferry Hill, a bar and restaurant establishment just over the Potomac River in Sharpsburg, Maryland, where I was a steady (or unsteady) patron from 1968-70. I attended Shepherd College which was in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, on the other side of the Potomac and – apart from … Read the rest
Контент 14+ I used to think that memories were sort of like the old tires that piled up outside the second-hand rubber store near my childhood home in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For that matter, there was also a company that made head-stones for the graveyards of the town. It was on the other side of the lot behind our house…
Talk about memories. Tombstones — and the blank marble shoulders … Read the rest
Контент 14+
One summer day I packed my backpack and headed out on an ethnographic expedition. I had just passed my exams and finished my first year as a student of the Moscow Academy of Music. This annual tour involves different students every go around because only several professors are engaged yet all students must participate at least once.
Our ethnographic laboratory had been studying the Bryansk region on the … Read the rest
