Dyker Height's spectacularly garish Christmas light displays have become the stuff of legend. I decided to brave the Christmas 'n Cannoli and finally see the neighborhood for myself. Little did I know that soulless sheep babies, dub-step holiday tunes, and Captain Kangaroo awaited me.
A weekly series that celebrates everyone’s favorite part of the author reading: the Q&A. This week, Pulitzer Prize winner Tracy K. Smith explains where her love for poetry began.
Read MoreFor a long time, I thought poetry was for people who cultivated smug aloofness. Not anymore. For proof that poetry can serve as an offering of connectedness, check out Transylvanian-American poet Andrei Codrescu’s So Recently Rent a World: New and Selected Poems 1968-2012 — or, if you live in New York or St. Paul, simply go outside with your eyes open.
Read MoreGoing Out is a weekly attempt to investigate overheard utterances, made at the restaurant where I work, that reveal something about desire. This week, a cautionary tale about an overfamiliar customer.
Read MoreRobots are vying for our love. And don't say Belgian filmmaker Frank Theys' documentary Technocalyps and Scott Hutchins' novel A Working Theory of Love didn't warn you. You know that flutter of anticipation you feel every time you grope for your portable device? Yeah, well — let's just hope you haven't already uploaded your heart.
Read MoreA good puzzle, wrote Stephen Sondheim, satisfies as deeply as the theater, culminating as it does in “the catharsis of solution.” When it comes time to shop for the brainteaser aficionado, how do you know s/he doesn't already own the latest trendy collection of crosswords or sudoku? I urge you to give the gift of a classic puzzle book instead.
Read MoreIn 2001, latrino-activist Vicki Rovere catalogued over 800 Manhattan bathrooms in her book Where To Go: A Guide to Manhattan’s Toilets. Last week, I visited some of Rovere's most praised loos to see how they'd held up over the decade — and how easy it was to use them without getting funny looks from the staff.
Read MoreThis week we're using our edible iPhones to go on online safaris and regretting our godawful band tattoos.
Read MoreWinter darkness: truncated days, light that’s weak and grey, grimy slush soaking through your boots. This time of year, you don’t drink citrusy spritzers or fruity gin bombs; you drink things that are thick with cream and sugar and brown liquors. Here are seven timeless holiday cocktails with my own recipes (or duly screened links to other people's recipes) and tips on maintaining your yuletide tipsiness the whole season through.
Read MoreIn this new series, Julia Langbein describes a book that does not exist: a book based on a recent curiosity from the real world; a book that, ideally, you will write. The first installment concerns the "accidental" razing of an 18th-century chateau by a Russian tycoon, and the novel — part Constant Gardener, part European Vacation — that it should inspire.
Read More
A Black Balloon Publication ©