Here are my remarks from the ceremony this evening at St. John’s where I was given the Spirit of the City award: It’s a great honor to be able to speak tonight at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine’s wonderful fund-raising ceremony to honor Xu Bing, the Chinese artist whose creations have been installed inside…Read More
I cleaned this up a trifle, but this is fairly close to what Louis C.K. said in the latest episode of Louie. It was part of the stand-up segment at the club, in the middle of the episode, where he always reaches back and touches the brick wall behind him as he talks, as if he’s trying…Read More
As I was writing The Constant Choice, I began to wonder if my tolerant, ecumenical views on religion would disqualify me as a Christian — at least in the eyes of many readers. In my appreciation for what all the great religions have in common — God, obviously, but also the Golden Rule — I wondered…Read More
We have a major, serious health crisis. It’s called obesity. We need more fruit and vegetables. We need more lean protein. We all know this. But we also need fast food. Wait. What? In the new issue of The Atlantic, David H. Freedman has a proposal for how to lower America’s weight problem. His solution: processed food. He…Read More
I’ve spent most of my life pondering the significance of good and evil. The origin of evil became something of an obsession for me as an adult, after having seen its face close-up during my childhood in Romania under the Communists. Decades later, here in America, I came to a sense of resolution about what…Read More
