Sep 10, 2026
I have written elsewhere about being sweet-talked by AI since the release of my new book of essays, An Eye For Joy: Noticing The Good World Everywhere, and the disconcerting flood of admiring and ingratiating bots who’ve “come across” the book, and “were immediately...
Mar 11, 2026
One of the pleasures of living in downtown Saint Paul is the opportunity to live an everyday life with architecture. The neighborhood forms masses of shapes against the sky, and there are wonderful interior shapes with atriums of different heights and colors. The...
Feb 12, 2026
I was raised in a time and place, and in a family, that followed strict protocol about home-handling of the American flag. Fly it on Memorial Day, on Flag Day, on the 4th of July, Labor Day. Never let it touch the ground. Never fly it in the rain. Take it in at...
Jan 26, 2026
The temperature dropped to 5 below zero by 7 pm last Saturday night, January 24. Less than twelve hours had passed since the shooting of ICU nurse Alex Pretti by federal agents on a busy street in Minneapolis; it had been a terrible day following terrible weeks. ...
Dec 1, 2025
In July, I wrote a piece called “Stop the Train! Was that a Rocket Ship?!”, in which I speculated fruitlessly about the origin of a mysterious object, with a galactic if forlorn air, spotted in a Wisconsin field from a speeding Amtrak train. What was that thing? You,...
