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Two Poets
From 1993 to 1995 I stumbled in two graduate programs, first economics and then religious studies. I was undone by advanced calculus and cultural theory—couldn’t handle the rigor of either, the puzzle...
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Heal Thyself
According to every epidemiological study of medical-student mental health ever published, a large percentage of us suffer from, well, something. The discussion sections of these research papers...
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Literary Stockings, Keats’s Addiction
In honor of T. S. Eliot’s birthday, here is a manuscript page of “Virginia.” Beatrix Potter’s family recipes go on the auction block: no rabbit, but she does instruct the reader how to prepare turkey....
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Happy 2013, From Mark Twain
“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and...
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Comfort Food
Sally Bell’s started making box lunch in the 1950s, but the recipes used to make the salad, sandwich spread, deviled egg, cheese wafer, and cupcake that go into the box date back to the 1920s, when...
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Royal Quiet Deluxe
Marinus Adrianus Koekkoek, In the Chicken Yard, ca. 1850, oil on canvas, 22.8" × 29.7". In 1972, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings changed the face of country music forever with the Outlaw country...
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Roger That
The complicated sex drive of William Byrd II. Hans Hysing’s portrait of Byrd, ca. 1724. William Byrd II was a colonial Virginia gentleman who, on occasion, was no gentleman at all. Writing about...
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Big, Bent Ears, Part 6: Treatise on the Veil
Cy Twombly Sr., back row, far left, with the swim team he coached at Washington & Lee University. From the 1950 W&L yearbook, Calyx. Photograph courtesy of the Special Collections &...
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Do Not Mock Our Walk
Tangier Island, Virginia.There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People’s Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes speech impediments....
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Roger That
We’re away until January 4, but we’re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year!Hans Hysing’s portrait of Byrd, ca. 1724.The complicated sex drive of...
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The Last Days of Foamhenge
Photo: Brett Hanover.If you’ve ever taken I-81 north through Virginia, you’ve passed the town of Natural Bridge, in Rockbridge County—home to a ninety-foot limestone arch that extends over a gorge, a...
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Taking the Train to Charlottesville
Amtrak’s Great Dome car.Every year, I take a Northeast Regional southbound to Charlottesville to visit two dear friends and their pair of gorgeous, sweetly neurotic German shepherds. I went once in the...
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The Last Days of Foamhenge
We’re away until January 3, but we’re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2016. Enjoy your holiday! Photo: Brett Hanover. If you’ve ever taken I-81 north through Virginia, you’ve passed the town...
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I Hate My Valentine, and Other News
“Oh look at me I’m so cool with the piano”: a Vinegar Valentine. Irwin Corey, the soi-disant “World’s Foremost Authority” who spent much of the twentieth century declaiming on this and that with an...
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Buy Yourself Some Old Seeds, and Other News
A vintage ad for a seed catalog. All writers are spies, but some of them, not unreasonably, want to do it full-time: it’s generally more lucrative than the “authorship” game, and it gets you out of...
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A Packing List for Writers
Today, I wrote a friend for advice about packing. I’ll be going from Virginia to Nashville to New York City, after which I’ll be flying to Rome for three weeks. My friend mentioned that his wife takes...
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Tom Wolfe, Straight-Arrow Virginia Gent
Tom Wolfe, New York City, November 2011. Back in the day when I was stepping out and Anatole Broyard kept a one-room city fifth-floor walkup in which I would not infrequently step out in, Tom was...
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Big, Bent Ears, Chapter 6: Treatise on the Veil
Cy Twombly Sr., back row, far left, with the swim team he coached at Washington & Lee University. From the 1950 W&L yearbook, Calyx. Photograph courtesy of the Special Collections &...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Do Not Mock Our Walk
Tangier Island, Virginia. There have been many theories advanced about the accents of Alaskan Bush People’s Brown children. These theories often involve chicanery and sometimes speech impediments....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Roger That
We’re away until January 4, but we’re re-posting some of our favorite pieces from 2015. Please enjoy, and have a happy New Year! Hans Hysing’s portrait of Byrd, ca. 1724. The complicated sex drive of...
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