Outlook | Outlook

Jan.17.2013 In Praise of Impracticality I saw a girl on a Manhattan-bound train wearing a knock-off Louis Vuitton headscarf and false eyelashes long enough to make a Daddy Long-legs envious. Her look—a sort of Sally-Bowles-does-Brooklyn—was complete with a matching knockoff LV handbag and umbrella. She was seated next to a...	Apr.05.2012 Does it make any sense to get depressed? We’re all familiar with the feeling, whether it’s short lived in response to a particular event, or a cloud that lingers for no apparent reason, maybe a purely biochemical one. What I wonder is what possible purpose the feeling serves. Here are some suggestions: 1) Being depressed conserves energy...
Apr.11.2010 KAFKA'S "PHILOSOPHY" FOR THE MODERN DAY Kafka and the True Way by David Vognar Literacy Aide, Jane Addams Hull House Association "Franz Kafka wrote brilliantly about mankind's muffing up of (albeit imperfect) reality through our reliance on philosophical motivations. This Jewish Czech who suffered a berating father, poor...	Oct.26.2009 How Does Poetry Work How Does Poetry Work? Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, October 8, 2009 Any attempt at answering that question is doomed to be inadequate for the simple fact that what we call poetry varies greatly and works in an incomprehensible range of ways. Nevertheless, as Robert Frost said, “...
Oct.26.2009 Why Poetry Why Poetry? Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, August 20, 2009 It’s a question that every poet who has ever been interviewed has been asked and a question that I ask my own writing students every semester. But it may really be two questions. The reasons, after all, for reading...	Oct.26.2009 Top 10 Reasons to Go to a Poetry Reading Top 10 Reasons to Go to a Poetry Reading Reprinted from “Musings,” Outlook, November 13, 2008 In this age of universal literacy, poetry readings might seem a strange concept. Why would one give up an evening of watching The Biggest Loser or Dancing with the Stars to listen to...
Oct.26.2009 How to Read a Poem HOW TO READ A POEM Reprinted from "Musings,"Outlook, August 27, 2009 This one comes in direct response to a reader who wrote to me that he doesn’t read much poetry because it never makes any sense to him. This is not the first time I’ve heard this complaint about poetry...	Aug.12.2008 Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures I've taken a tiny break from the blog as I train myself in using my new Blackberry, along with Outlook, Word and a few other torturous inventions designed to move me into the twenty-first century. So while I'm doing that, I thought I'd share this video John made for Barefoot Contessa Photo...
Jun.30.2008 Crystal Ball In yesterday's WaPost, Jonathan Karp postulates that we are living in the age of the disposable book, and sees a future in which only truly novel novels will flourish. The rest of us will (continue to?) struggle. Then there's that whole mulching thing. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/...