Sep 14
Last Words Thoreau’s sister Sophia, who was reading to him from A Week on the Concord and Merrimack when he died, claimed his last words were “Now comes good sailing.” William Ellery Channing, a friend of Thoreau’s who was also present, said he heard only two words: “Moose. Indian.” My wife says I yelled “Run!” …
Jul 25
Seeing Is Believing Belief is elastic. Yesterday, to the screams of horrified tourists, a statue of the Virgin Mary in a cathedral in Linz, Austria, appeared to go into labor. People believe what they need to believe to persevere. “Do you see the donut,” the cancer specialist asks, suddenly sounding anxious, “or just the hole?” …
Jun 22
Gizmo As usual, murderers and cheats were in charge and forcing catastrophe on the rest of us. A woman of about my age who looked teasingly familiar stumbled out of the smoke. My mind was a tangle of questions. “Is that your” – I didn’t know what to call it – “‘gizmo’?” I asked. She …
