Coast-to-coast? Done that. So Matt Green set out to walk New York. Every borough. Every street. Every pier and park. Eight years and 8,000 miles later. . . (As seen in “The World Beneath My Feet.”)

TRACY K. SMITH -- DOWN ROADS NOT TAKEN

For two years, America’s poet laureate reached out to the nation. The nation reached back.

BOOK-ISHThe AtticMay 10, 2021Tracy Smith, Tracy L.K. Smith, Poet laureate, American poetryComment

IS SEX NECESSARY?

At the end of the Freud-filled 1920s, James Thurber and E.B. White launched their careers with a silly question and a spoof.

Humor, WITSThe AtticMay 10, 2021James Thurber, E.B. White, Humor, Sex Comments

WALKING AMERICA WITH THE MASTER

“I have met with but one or two persons in the course of my life who understood the art of Walking.” — Thoreau

WHEN I MET THE CODE TALKERS

GALLUP, NEW MEXICO — Face-to-face with honor and a Navajo tradition of silence.

HEROESThe AtticMay 6, 2021NAVAJO CODE TALKERS, WORLD WAR II, NAVAJO NATION Comments

WALKING AMERICA: THE LONGEST JOURNEYS

Walking, American style, is often a coast-to-coast journey. But it isn’t about the feet.

LIFE AND LIFE SENTENCES

When Will Durant asked the wise about “the meaning of life,” he got the usual answers. Then he asked a prisoner.

THE WHOLE EARTH'S QUIRKY CATALOG

From a rooftop vision to a counterculture bible, Stewart Brand sowed the seeds of several revolutions.

FOOTBALL'S MADCAP "MAD DUCK"

You may think football a grim sport, but meet Alex Karras, "a clown with a fine sense of timing." And, BTW, Hitler's husband.

WITSThe AtticApril 12, 2021Alex Karras, NFL, Detroit Lions, Paper Lion Comment

OGDEN NASH -- MASTER OF PACE AND RHYME

No verse was too light, no rhyme was too impossible for Ogden Nash.

WITS, BOOK-ISHThe AtticApril 9, 2021Ogden Nash, Poetry, Verse, Light verse Comments

"NETWORK" -- STILL MAD AS HELL

“Network" did not predict populist anger -- it foresaw a network using anger to boost ratings. Sound familiar?

WITS, ATTIC AT THE MOVIESThe AtticApril 2, 2021Humor, Movies, Satire, TV Comments

STEVE GOODMAN -- GOOD MORNIN' AMERICA

“Every audience was his,” Kris Kristofferson said, but no one knew Steve Goodman’s sad secret.

PHILADELPHIA BURNING -- THE ABOLITIONIST WEDDING

When the Northern groom married the Southern bride, the bond was love. And a fight for freedom.

REBELSThe AtticMarch 19, 2021abolition, slavery, american history, grimke, civil war Comments

FREDERIC CHURCH -- THE FINEST EYE

Fresh from the Hudson River School, Frederic Church stunned America with “Niagara,” then set his vision in stone.

ART-ISHThe AtticMarch 4, 2021American art, Hudson River School, Frederic Church, Olana Comments

JAIME ESCALANTE AND THE CALCULUS OF HOPE

Students called Jaime Escalante “Kimo.” He called them his “burros.” But the key to his success was ganas — the drive to succeed. (As seen in “Stand and Deliver.”)

BANNEKER VS. JEFFERSON -- THE ALMANAC OF INEQUALITY

Despite his glowing words, Jefferson thought blacks far from equal. Then a single letter took him to task.

teachers, TEACHERSThe AtticFebruary 12, 2021Benjamin Banneker, Thomas Jefferson, Education, Black history Comments

KINDER, COOLER, SMARTER

NOW ENTERING OUR TENTH YEAR!

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