If you know a non-English European language, you probably know that “history” and “story” are often the same word. I don’t know how this happened but it seems deeply wrong. I was outraged. At the least, it seems to undermine the authority and credibility that history claims, as opposed to the making-shit-up that stories do. […]
Last Wednesday, December 21, Sidney Drell died. I can’t imagine anyone called him anything except “Sid.” He was 90. He was a particle physicist who for a while was deputy director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator. He had a persistent South Jersey accent which somehow seemed to go with his attitude that nothing was too […]
December 19 – 23, 2016 The People of LWON, ever mindful of your comfort and convenience, have suggested some films to watch, should you happen to be sick and tired of holiday reality. But since you need to do the holidays regardless, Emma has a national-forest-gathered evergreen wreath with a dead wolf-lichen-covered branch hot-glued to […]
I did not want to join yoga class. I hated those soft-spoken, beatific instructors. I worried that the people in the class could fold up like origami and I’d fold up a bread stick. I understood the need for stretchy clothes but not for total anatomical disclosure. But my hip joints hurt and so did my […]
Before the week’s Last Word, a continuing apology: Our software for commenting is still screwed up — you can leave a comment but its publication might take a bit — and we’re still working on it and we’re still sorry. November 28 – December 2, 2016 Helen’s nerves are still shot — whose aren’t? — […]
I’ve been reading a history book, this one on a subject with so little documentation it needs to rely on eyewitnesses remembering what happened 10, 30, 50 years before. Which, honest to God, why would you even bother? Science insists over and over and over, eyewitness testimony isn’t reliable – it’s influenced by stress, it […]
October 24 – 28, 2016 For signs of fall, you got your turning leaves, your pumpkin spice, your Halloween. But Helen’s got crocuses, flu shots, and delight. LWON is so happy that Emma Marris finally agreed to join it. She’s been watching wolves for a while now, and wonders what will happen now that someone’s […]
May I introduce James Gleick? He’s been on staff at the New York Times, and has written seven books, including Chaos and Genius (a biography of Richard Feynman), for which he’s won impressive prizes. And he’s just published Time Travel, which Joyce Carol Oates called “another of [his] superb, unclassifiable books.” It’s a compendium of […]