The picture on my Facebook page was of a set of stairs. I recognized them as those that led to a Chinese restaurant I frequented when I worked in the city. The food was good and cheap, and customers appreciated the fast service.  If I arrived for lunch alone, I’d usually find a tab

Recently, there was a dustup at Reed College, my alma mater.  Like elsewhere, the students are balking against the curriculum.  In particular, they resent being dragged through the Humanities, a survey course on western culture that begins with ancient Greece.  To focus

One normally doesn’t tout the quarterly edition of an alumni magazine as scintillating reading, but I’m often surprised by what I discover in mine. Nestled among the names of those who are working on PhDs, or writing books or having babies, or doing nothing because they have died,