quadmoniker: I’m going to endorse the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Setting aside the sound policy that started it — getting cautious consumers back to the showrooms and getting the least efficient cars off the road to lower emissions — this magical rebate program got my mom a new car. I love my mom, but getting Read More
quadmoniker: I’m going to endorse universal health care, or at least universal dental care. Because of the way I changed jobs and a lack of consistent coverage, I didn’t go to the dentist between 2004 and 2008. At the same time, I was fairly steadily on subscription antacids because I kept getting pretty bad ulcers, Read More
shani-o: Sometime early in the year (or was it last year?), I heard a radio interview on Philly’s public radio station with a man named Joel Berg. Berg was discussing ‘low food insecurity’ (also known as ‘hunger’) in the U.S. His energy and candor made me take note of his book, which came out just Read More
blankink: Dinosaurs on Noah’sArk ? The peculiar spectacle of Terry Schiavo? Book bans targeted at gay authors? Charles Pierce grew weary of this nonsense long ago, well before Sarah Palin was claiming foreign policy experience from Juneau and Glenn Beck descended into full-blown delirium. In his irreverent and smart essay for Esquire in October 2005, Read More
belleisa: Reading, reading and more reading. I’ll be finishing Sag Harbor this weekend, and looking for a June book…any suggestions? Also, I meet with former professors of mine about once a month for a post-colonial reading group. We’ve gotten through some Frantz Fanon and moved on to Angela Davis. Last week we read a speech Read More
shani-o: I was intrigued by Up when I heard about it on Fresh Air. It was the first animated film to open Cannes, and having seen it last night, I can totally understand why. It was beautiful and moving, goofy and ridiculous, and I totally cried. Twice. (G.D. almost did, too, but don’t tell him Read More
GD: A few years ago, Slate‘s David Plotz undertook a fun project called Blogging the Bible, in which he reads Old Testament again with fresh eyes as an adult. He finds the holy books full of stuff that got left out of his religious education growing up: adultery, incest and lots and lots of land Read More
G.D.: The blogosphere is full of insightful commentary, some of it written by precocious types who still have breastmilk on their tongues. (It’s all a little unnerving to think about.) Take my PostBourgie blogmate, Jamelle, for example. For a while now, he’s run one of my favorite political blogs while juggling college coursework, a senior Read More
quadmoniker: My copy of The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York has had a prominent and accusatory place on three different bookshelves in three different apartments for at least five years now. I was supposed to read it before I started graduate school. I did not. It’s more than 1,200 pages Read More
via. blackink: As something of a recovering carbs junkie, I’ve tried hard to avoid binging on cheesecake, burritos and sweet, sweet red Kool-Aid over the past few months. But I’m making an exception for this soul-food staple this weekend. My first brush with chicken and waffles came during a college trip to California. I had Read More
