Culture and Arts

More than 20 years ago, when Russell Foster was 19 and his girlfriend Amber was 15, Montana's laws tore them apart, sending Russell to prison for four years for having sex with a minor.Hoping to spare other young couples severe consequences, the Fosters pushed for a bill the Montana Legislature passed last month that would reduce the penalties for teens caught engaging in consensual sexual activity. The measure also would expand the age range covered by the state’s existing Romeo and Juliet law. more »

Julia Sneden wrote: The houses in my neighborhood have benefited from the Feng Shui principles, but I'm enough of a chauvinist to feel that there is a certain kind of American Feng Shui which needs no help, and old Southern houses (not mansions, just houses) abound in it. Wide porches; shady settings; big windows; double chimneys; an abundance of shrubs like crape myrtle and azaleas and rhododendrons; large yards and deep set-backs from the streets; basements and attics and wonderful closets; all these and more seem pretty harmonious to me. more »

"With a particular New York Jewish sensibility, Chast's humor of complaint offers us all a chance to laugh at the often stressful and absurd world around us. She is an important social satirist who, like so many other Jewish humorists, has helped to shape our culture, and with her moving and honest memoir, she shows us how deeply she can touch our hearts as well." A substantial number of illustrations Chast created for 101 Two-letter Words, a book of two-letter words allowed in the game of Scrabble also appear in the exhibition: an eye-patch-wearing pirate parrot for the word AR and a jar of Grandma Yetta’s Gefilte Fish for OY. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Should we not be reviewing ancient philosophical and religious traditions on the premises where they agree? While eastern prescriptions aim to remove mankind from life as we live it here, the western ones by and large seem to advocate a faith that whatever follows this life may mirror it. The older I get, the more it seems to me that the rift grows ever larger as each approach becomes more and more insistent. more »