One-upmanship among birds — the one on the right holds its beak a tiny bit higher, and carries a leaf. But these conclusions are anthropomorphic; we will never know what is going on in their little brains. For all we know they might just regard the leave as a blemish, not a medal of honor. … Continue reading
My thoughts are going back to my first visits in Greece. I started writing a new novel that has, in its first chapter, the protagonist sitting in a tiny 3rd floor room in Ierapetra, Crete, overlooking the sea, toward Africa. His hands are in pain from blisters that have opened up. He is not fit … Continue reading
Last night, at New Year’s Eve, we were with friends in St. John’s Cathedral at the annual Concert for Peace. It was a beautiful solemn night, with concerts, songs, and a candle-lighting ceremony. But this one hymn, whose text is reprinted below, struck me as remarkable. It is identified on the Program as a Traditional … Continue reading
Tabula Rasa is the state of total erasure (“erasure” comes from lat. “rasa”), enabling a restart, often of memory, but it might also apply to a project, a program. I often find myself in the Tabula Rasa state, experiencing emptiness, experiencing the absence of an object in my inner vision, absence of a driving force … Continue reading
These are odd categories, and what I mean to refer to is fiction that expands into a space which is defined by suburban versus urban life. John Cheever’s short stories are examples of what I call suburban fiction. The stories epitomize suburban alienation — the result of the tension between, on the one hand, the … Continue reading
I bought a quadruplet of little socks for Sophie the dog, to protect her feet from the salt grains which easily invade the spaces between her toes. I realized afterwards that I chose this particular set on impulse, without thinking much. These little socks are made of fabric, with plastic decorations that made the covered … Continue reading
My dog Sophie, in her 16th year, has developed a fear of heights. The depth of the fall she fears is a staggering 11 floors, not counting the basement and sub-basement below it. The moment of fear occurs every time when she steps from the hallway floor into the elevator, and has to cross a … Continue reading
The 41st weekly meeting of the Estonian Nobel Committee for Flash Fiction convened on November 23rd at 9:12 a.m. It resulted in the election of the new chairman, Lembit Valk. The meeting was adjourned at 9:16 a.m.
“In recent months, the extent of mass surveillance has become common knowledge. With a few clicks of the mouse the state can access your mobile device, your e-mail, your social networking and Internet searches. It can follow your political leanings and activities and, in partnership with Internet corporations, it collects and stores your data, and … Continue reading
“The Monkweed — A Seasonal Prediction,” which I wrote more than 30 years ago when I was ill in bed with the flu, is still my most ambitious piece of fiction, though it contains only 9 words, not counting the 20 footnotes. It was initially published in print by The Agent, a British small Zine, … Continue reading
I was surprised to discover, a few days ago, that Meyer’s gigantic Encyclopedia is available online. I’m the proud owner of the 6th (physical, touchable) edition, in 20 volumes, each comprising 1000 pages The edition was published between 1902 and 1908. It was a fixture in the living room of my parents’ house, the house … Continue reading
On August 1, Jennifer Rosoff, an ad executive, 35 years old, takes her date on the balcony of her apartment on 57th Street. She sits on the railing, smoking a cigarette. He is concerned, she assures him she is safe, but then loses her balance and falls to her death. On November 25, barely 4 … Continue reading
As we get old, we review in our minds the places we have called home, and the question arises: how exactly do we relate to them? This conversation was triggered by PEN’s celebration of Cavafi’s 150th birthday, on Nov 18, 2013. It was noted by more than one of the illustrious performers that Cavafi’s poetry … Continue reading
Today it occurred to me that the spying by the NSA and Global Warming have one thing in common: both happen on a massive scale; we are all affected yet seem powerless in curbing the pernicious development or changing the direction. The change in my habits of consumption and energy use is of so little … Continue reading
Toward the end of today’s lecture about Molecular Biology in the past 60 years (I suppose counting from the discovery of the structure of DNA, in 1953), Sydney Brenner explained the difference between junk kept and junk thrown away. The latter is called garbage. For instance, he kept boxes in which chemicals were shipped in … Continue reading
This is what I did at 9 am today: I thought of a metaphor for the time streaming by. Nobody steps into the same river twice, as the Greeks were saying, but this is not true for the shower. I find myself in the shower over and over again, each day with the same motions, … Continue reading
The state of the earth is documented in a striking photo that shows a surfer in the ocean surrounded by a swirl of trash. We are talking about Java, the group of islands that used to stand for pristine azure-colored ocean, and now stands for coffee and for a software format suitable for apps. How … Continue reading
Once in a while I get shocked by formulations of our academic leaders that are devoid of a sense of humanity. This just happened upon reading an essay by May R. Berenbaum, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Head of the Department of Entomology at the University of Urbana-Champaign. The … Continue reading
. There was this fable I heard somewhere about Eternity. I will do my best to retell it. A man asks a wise man how long Eternity is. So the wise man says, picture this high mountain in Farawayastan. Every hundred years this little bird flies to the top of the mountain and whets its … Continue reading
Claes Oldenburg’s Gun Ray collection, presented together with the Mouse Museum at MoMa, shows a visual thinker at work. Anything that has the shape of a gun, even objects that happen to encompass a shape made from two cylinders (or rectangles, in projection or roadkill) of different sizes meeting each other in an angle of … Continue reading
