I’m a book person. It’s how I identify with myself. I’m a husband, a father, a nerd, and a book person. When students ask me what I’m going to do on the weekend, I normally say “Books and whiskey.” They laugh—which is the point—but only the whiskey part is a joke. (Christine’s more strict about [...]
Really, I was a teacher today. I’m not saying that because I explained, again, that do is the most common helping verb in English. Or even because I talked about regular and irregular verbs. I do that all the time, yet I know that I’m a coward on the parts of the job that are [...]
Inspired by Wendy, the family essayist, I’ve decided to try my hand at a few essays about reading. Fun, huh? Well, while I’m working on the first, I found myself using the word bibliophile. It’s a word I’ve known for a while, but I’ve taken a new liking to it ever since reading this passage [...]
It’s almost eight o’clock here in the Fatherland. Christine and the baby are still sleeping. Since I got up just after six, I’ve walked the dog, practiced piano (a ‘passion’ that’s received much too little of my time recently), washed the dishes, and now I’m doing this. I used to get up early pretty regularly. [...]
No, this isn’t a concert announcement. It’s a bit of speculative history. What-if history, if you prefer to call it that. What if Vivaldi lived in Dresden? I’ll tell you what: he would have written a much less famous work called “The One Season: Winter.” It’s snowing here again. I should be allowed to sue [...]
Believe it or not, I really don’t have much to add here. It’s Leon. He’s cute.