Making Things Up: Facts, Fiction, and Unlikeliness*

As I inaugurate a new period of ruminating on things (see Rumination 31 for the early history…or Rumination 15 for a screed about ‘things’) and writing them up, I return to an observation by the protagonist Dr. Tom More in Walker Percy’s novel, The Thanatos Syn
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Flirting in Science Class: Boys, Bunsen Burners, and Bad Thought Experiments

It is with not inconsiderable risk that a fellow chooses to weigh in on the Tim Hunt faux pas, but it was the following article from The Guardian that caught my attention and emboldened me. It was not that I too attended a “single-sex school in the 1960’s” as Hunt’s wife, the immunolo
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Now, Don’t Get Me Wrong: Truth, Hidden Agendas, and Subway Phatics

Yesterday afternoon in the subway, I overheard one fellow say to another: “Well, you know me, I…“ Why is it that when I hear phrases like this – phrases intended to make doubly sure that the listener knows who one is and/or what they’re up to – my reaction is t
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The Discrete Shudder of A Twittering WASP: Philippe Petit, Limestone Cliffs, and R. W. Emerson

Before writing my first novel As It Is On Earth, I did not have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a Blog, or a website that relied on me as the “Admin.”  I scoffed at the first, did not understand the meaning of the second, shrank in horror at the third, and thought
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A Caesura in Ruminations . . . The PEN/Hemingway Awards at the JFK Library – March 24, 2013

I thought visitors to Ruminations…might enjoy some shots of the day at theJFK Center PEN/Hemingway Awards: Yes, that’s the back of Colm Toíbín’s head. He gave an endearing Keynote on Hemingway’s “unsaid.” Cathy Chung (author of Forgotten Country) an
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For Bloom The Bell Tolls: Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Anxiolytics and The Hemingways

This weekend, I’m off to receive my PEN/Hemingway nod at the JFK Presidential Library in Boston. It’s a public ceremony, so come by and say hi if you’re in Boston. I say “nod” for a reason. That’s all Catherine Chung (Forgotten Country) and I – the
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Nitpicking in Pandora’s Box: Schroeder on Page 20, ‘I’ Tunes, and Julie Andrew’s Solfège

Do you like to sing? I do. My singing voice is not great, but it’s serviceable enough for the local chorale. A few years back, we were working on Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Frankly, that tune is a bitch. Did you see page 20 in the picture? Absolutely no place to take a breath.
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Eternity ShuffleBottom, Cuckolds, and The Descent of Man: Vlad the Impaler Dougies in Cambridge

This week I thought I’d write about one of our country’s great national pastimes – one that spans the centuries, gathers the family around its lush field of dreams, and courses through our very being. Now, those of you who don’t like sports or – more understandably –
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Tennyson’s Bar, Planking at Yaki Point, and Bad Bat Renderings: Texting Pictures Across the Corpus Callosum

Some news: The Pen/Hemingway Award for Literary Excellence in Debut Fiction is issuing a press release today. Here’s a hint: If Yellow Birds is to Open City, then As It Is On Earth is to The Art of Fielding.  But enough about me. It’s Thursday; I’ve a
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The Chebarkul Meteor, iRobot Vacuum Cleaners, and A Prius in Flatland: The Atmosphere of Objects

In a previous post, I wrote about “Things“. This week, I want to make some points about a certain class of Things, namely…Objects. Why?…On Saturday, I will be moderating a panel at an interior design conference, entitled Aftertaste: The Atmosphere of Objects. T
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