Category Archives: Uncategorized

So this morning the NY Times reports that an amateur astronomer discovered what appears to be an impact spot on Jupiter that’s the size of the Earth. Check it out here: thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/21/amateur-astronomer-finds-new-earth-size-impact-mark-on-jupiter/?hp At first I puzzled over what could be … Continue reading →

As a writer it’s easy to kvetch and snipe about other writers and the failings of their books, and especially what makes up the Bestseller List, which often seems like crap in one form on another: For a funny take … Continue reading →

Here’s the link to my review of Marcel Theroux’s novel, Far North, published today in the Dallas Morning News:  http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/ent/stories/DN-bk_farnorth_0705gd.ART.State.Edition1.4bb28ee.html

So like all good Americans I spent the 4th of July chopping wood for winter and taping my two-year-old capering about in my backyard, wearing a bucket on her head and swinging in the hammock, crying, “Higher, please!” Later I … Continue reading →

So the threat of environmental mayhem is real and disturbing, from Nicholas Kristof’s article in the NY Times about genital mutations to both animals and humans caused by chemicals in our drinking water to reports that M.I.T.’s climatologists have bumped … Continue reading →

First, a confession: I’m no great fan of M. Night Shymalan’s films. Some of my students think him a “genius” but that seems a bit giddy: The Sixth Sense (1999)  and Signs (2002) are watchable and clever in moments, but … Continue reading →

So a friend of mine (Yo, Morris) recently sent me this link to a trailer for the film version of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, starring Viggo Mortensen, Charlize Theron, and Robert Duvall:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GACx8We7Vo. It looks to be the awesome apocalyptic … Continue reading →

So I’ve just returned from a six-day river rafting trip in western Colorado, on the Gunnison River in Big Dominguez Canyon, which my pal Barack has recently approved as a Wilderness Area. Beautiful redrock canyons, great birds: We saw Bullock’s … Continue reading →

If I hear another idiotic, brain-dead plug of Twitter from the mass media I’ll be screaming like Robert Downey Jr.’s gay monk character in the trailer for Satan’s Alley (for this little gem, see the opening credits of Tropic Thunder). … Continue reading →

So I was surprised to see my name on the (on-line version) front page of the NY Times today, quoting a favorable blurb from my review of Abraham Verghese’s novel Cutting for Stone. Here’s the review in its entirety, published … Continue reading →