I was dismayed to see MYSELF in the brilliant, funny New Yorker piece “Wait but have you tried?” about the advice-giving that is everywhere. It pulled me up short and got me wondering what an antidote for this rampant habit might be?
Read More
I was dismayed to see MYSELF in the brilliant, funny New Yorker piece “Wait but have you tried?” about the advice-giving that is everywhere. It pulled me up short and got me wondering what an antidote for this rampant habit might be?
Read MoreAfter reading a New Yorker article on America’s biggest selling books, many of which are “self-help” I realized I’d read many of them and none helped me help myself (although plenty of other things in my life have). Soon after, I stumbled on the penultimate self-help advice.
Read MoreNew Yorker staff writer Emily Nussbaum posed this question on Twitter: What is your best LIFE HACK?? Most were amazingly wise and/or useful. Here are our favorites:
Read MoreFor over a week, the work of a poet and an artist seemed to be in conversation,
helping us understand a fearsome part of living.
We recently re-discovered “Eating Grapes Downwards” a poem we’d loved and somehow lost track of. Christian Wiman describes the mysterious creative process we cannot control, and often aren’t even aware of, but that is part of every life. With instructions for how to navigate…
Read MoreAt the New Yorker, cartoonist Roz Chast takes on the kind of equation we are seeing everywhere, of “experts” assessing the level of risk in commonly enjoyed activities of human existence.
Read MoreWhen a virtuoso cellist found his rare, beloved cello changed after massive repairs, he had to find new ways to elicit its unique sound — a lesson in navigating change in things we love.
Read MorePoet, critic and theorist Fred Moten’s insights into the true nature of mayonnaise got me thinking about my favorite ways to jazz up storebought Mayo
Read MoreScience has proven what painting, poetry, and our own experience know: walking helps us think, and be.
Read MoreRoz Chast’s January New Yorker cover “Cruellest Month” made us laugh out loud. “I wanted to show just the horribleness of January.” Chast says. And she did. Then we thought of ways to change our winter mindset.
Read MoreScientists have found many ways to explain what remains largely mysterious: the astonishing murmurations of starlings Jan van IJKen captured in this sublime short video. The best description of that mystery is John Updike’s The Great Scarf of Birds.
Read MoreDeciphering the fragrance notes in the perfume samples I order from Twisted Lily is akin to listening with every sense. It is incredibly fun, as is reading their dreamy descriptions, and the New Yorker’s brilliant riff.
Read MoreFrom The New Yorker ‘s brief, compelling tribute to novelist Denis Johnson, who passed away last week at the age of sixty-seven: his three rules for writing that ANYONE can use.
Read MoreA tiny yet extraordinary exhibit at New York’s Metropolitan Museum is evidence that we “are free to change at any age”.
Read MoreIn response to Kathryn Schultz’s very moving ‘When Things Go Missing, Reflections of Two Seasons of Loss’, Yesho described a unique Turkish practice for finding lost things.
Read MoreSoul Survivor, David Remnick’s moving profile of complex, mysterious, brilliant, notoriously infuriating singer Aretha Franklin, sent us looking for videos of the great diva in action. We stumbled on this rough beauty of seventy-something Aretha playing piano herself, in a mode that was more churchlike gospel – her roots — than theater performance. If you’re tired or troubled, or need uplift to your day, her groove will hearten you.
Read MoreRoz Chast’s “Wonderland” describes the rabbit hole the internet can be, enticing us to follow the trail of astonishing treasures we never knew existed. In true Chastian fashion, she illustrates each discovery and their additive nature, shouting “I COULD NOT STOP LOOKING….”. Chast almost seems to be channeling Japanese de-cluttering philosopher Marie Kondo…
Read MoreIn response to A New View of Losing Years of Work, a reader named Ann sent us this perfect cartoon and commentary: I’m not sure this link* will take you to the place I intend. I want to link you to the cartoon that shows a man tied to a chair while masked men steal…
Read MoreThe great Roz Chast’s recent New Yorker cartoon really hits home. Having once been quite a serious neat-o-phile, I’ve learned over the years that the principle of “enough” can be quite liberating. It’s a variation of a philosophy I first learned from a therapist friend…
Read MoreArtist Kadir Nelson who painted the New Yorker cover of young Nelson Mandela said that creating Nelson’s portraint maid him feel “empowered and proud like the man himself.”
That’s how seeing the cover makes us feel. As do Mandela’s empowering words.