Articles
CultureWatch, January 2011 Edition
Cleopatra: A Life — In the end, we must ask ourselves if Stacy Schiff, one of the most gifted American biographers currently writing, has successfully peeled away two millennia of myth and propaganda or, rather, given us a new myth, a Cleopatra who fits modern, Western feminist thinking. In the Pursuit of Happiness — To call Maria Kalman's work idiosyncratic isn’t nearly powerful enough to describe what she has produced. It is an explosion of such brilliance that one scarcely knows where to start more »
Short in Stature, Tall in Tone
It wasn’t the reading of my weight that terrified me. After a lifetime of dieting (skip birth to age 10), for the past half dozen years I’ve held steady at 104. Poundage was not the problem. It was the ruler she was about to pull up, then down, then down again, to measure my height. more »
Wanted: Celebrity Parents
I am seeking a new mother or father — preferably one who hosts a popular TV show (think Oprah … any of the ladies on The View … Regis before he leaves) on which he or she can plug my newest book. You know what I mean more »
The Function of Laughter at the US Supreme Court
"I argue that laughter plays an important social and communicative function in Supreme Court oral arguments that enables advocates and justices to negotiate the complex institutional, social, and intellectual barriers to obtain brief moments of equality within the Courtroom" more »