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The Tale of the Foreman
Wednesday January 25, 2012
So my father told a story of his own grandfather—one I had heard often but that astounds me every time it’s related. The moral dilemma is a perfect example of what can face a human being, a tale positively Greek in both its heroic and tragic components. His name was Jones McWhorter, and he lived in Houston, Mississippi. He had a fine job as a railroad foreman—an occupation hard to come by in the depths....
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This Is Your Brain on Art
Tuesday January 24, 2012
I went to a middle school dance the other night to watch my son’s band play the four songs they know. What I observed probably won’t surprise you. The boys at the dance reacted to the rock & roll. They jumped and wiggled—some even did what might be considered dancing—and ran and threw their bodies against the padded walls under the basketball hoops. Mature enough to know better, the girls stood....
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Winterland
Monday January 23, 2012
Who shall sing of winter and its transcendence? O not the Swiss mountains or the Colorado valleys, but of a streetcorner in Medford, Massachusetts, on a 15 degree day: a little storefront shopette thronged with teenage deadbeats in leather car coats and jeans, cigarette smoke tendrilling through their elaborate feathered hair, kicking at clods of dirty snow....
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Vessel of Joy
Friday January 20, 2012
Sometimes, creation declares the glory of God with a mountain moonrise, or a wild, churning sea. Birdsong sailing above an otherwise quiet plain. The crystal shine of new snow. Sometimes, it happens in Zumba class. I like to dance. In my childhood, I took classes with my sister at a children’s ballet theater. She was the elegant one, with a good turnout and natural grace. I, on the other hand, enjoyed candy....
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What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Immigration
Thursday January 19, 2012
For years I had been incubating ideas for a project set in the world of immigration—first a drama series, then a mini-series, a feature film, a documentary, a book of profiles, and finally, back to a one-hour drama, this format being my bread-and-butter medium. But having traveled far and wide both in imagination and research, one thing was certain when I returned to the platform of a series....
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Current Issue
Issue 71
Fiction by Larry Woiwode, interview with Joe Henry, art by Fabian Debora, essay by Barry Moser.
Good Letters: The Image Blog
