Category Archives: Uncategorized

What I love about the sky above Budapest is that I can see it. There are strict limits on the height of buildings in Budapest. Traditionally, they could not be build taller than Parliament or Saint Stephen’s Basilica, both of … Continue reading →

Recently, I was reading a book of essays by E.B. White (author of Charlotte’s Web and other children’s books, as well as an excellent essayist). In one essay, he lamented that in his small town in Maine, the rotary phone … Continue reading →

When I was in college, the task of the researcher was to find information. When I was in graduate school, it was to sort through information. This spring, when my students arrive at the university, I will tell them their … Continue reading →

Recently, I read two quotations about home. The first is from Katherine Mansfield, written in her diary: “I want so to live that I work with my hands and my feeling and my brain. I want a garden, a small … Continue reading →

I am not a revolutionary. I am far too introverted, too much inside my own head most of the time. I went to a march once, back in 2017, and found it both inspiring and ineffective. But I look at … Continue reading →

In summer, while I was in Budapest, I went into a DM store. I think DM means drogerie markt? It’s a German chain of what in the United States we would call drug stores, but in Hungary only pharmacies sell … Continue reading →

I have four months. Sometimes I envy people who just write. They can get up in the morning, get in their writing, do the other things they need to do — write to agents and editors, work on publicity, etc. … Continue reading →