
“The distinction between complex thinking / right-answer thinking increasingly defines the difference between elite educational opportunity and education of the rest.”"If the SAT Were a Key to All Mythology" by Monica Cohen



“Take It From a Soldier: On Kevin Powers's "Yellow Birds"”
November 11th, 2012
“The Third Man: Joseph Anton’s Split Perspective”
November 4th, 2012
“Touring the Mind of Neil Young”
October 29th, 2012

“The Terrifying Wish that Comes True: On Cain's 'The Cocktail Waitress'”
September 16th, 2012
“Their Silver Lining: Nazi Genocide and Eastern Europe”
September 13th, 2012
“The Timbuktu Delusion: On the Famous, Far-Flung City”
September 6th, 2012
“Thomas Hart Benton and the Contradictions of Populism”
August 19th, 2012


“Taking Comedy Seriously: Jess Walter's New Novel”
July 17th, 2012

"There is nothing more poetic and terrible than the skyscrapers' battle with the heavens that cover them.... More


"The nineteenth century believed in science but the twentieth century does not." — Gertrude Stein... More



"Read. Always read. No one can take that away from you."... More

"I don't think anyone should write their autobiography until after they're dead." — Samuel Goldwyn... More

"There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education." — Will Rogers... More

"Mere flim-flam stories, and nothing but shams and lies." — Miguel de Cervantes... More