How to Be Blind
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story I first noticed something wrong with my eyes in New Mexico. I was a freshman in high school, in the mid-nineties, and had recently been accepted into a clique of older…
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Oppenheimer, Nullified and Vindicated
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story “Architect of Atomic Bomb Cleared of ‘Black Mark.’ ” That was the headline last December 18th, when the Times ran a long story on page 16 reporting that Secretary of Energy…
The Rise and Fall of Smooth Jazz
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Whenever I’m asked to provide a “fun fact” about myself, I usually say that I worked as a smooth-jazz radio announcer back in college. It wasn’t the kind of unsuitable, faintly…
A Canine Detective Story in “Shadow of a Dog”
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Armed with night-vision trail cameras, a large cage, and a generous cache of hot dogs, Jim Tierney embarks on nighttime stakeouts in and around New York. The opening scenes of “Shadow…
Sergio García Sánchez’s “On the Same Page”
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story When the main branch of the New York Public Library was dedicated, on May 23, 1911, John Alden Dix, the governor of New York, hailed it as “the generator of moral…
For the Love of Comics: Bill Griffith Takes On the Iconic Nancy
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story There are movies about filmmaking, and novels about professors of literature, but there aren’t many comic-book biographies of cartoonists. Enter Bill Griffith, who, as the creator of a character called Zippy…
The Puzzle of Putting Video Games in a Museum
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story At some point in my childhood, I persuaded my parents to buy me a computer game at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Obsessed, like many kids, with ancient Egypt, I’d spent…
Kelly Clarkson’s Captivating Divorce Album
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Kelly Clarkson’s voice was always wasted on saccharine ballads such as “A Moment Like This,” the début single that she released, in 2002, after winning the inaugural season of “American Idol.”…
The Missing Bill Murray Part from “Asteroid City”
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story Shot in the style of a retro promotional trailer for a Hollywood film, this fake trailer features Bill Murray, in a fake role that was “cut” from “Asteroid City,” and Jason…
Climate and Conflict Converge in “The Fire Brigade”
Save this storySave this storySave this storySave this story “In these parts of the world, where people live in extremely rough circumstances, they’re able to put aside [their] differences in the name of protecting their environment,” the director David Alexander…
