Like its author, How To Be Black is a bit of a scattershot—confessional, political, comedic. But let me explain what the book is not: It is not an instructional how-to in the spirit of …For Dummies. Written more explicitly, “This book is not How to Become a Black Person If You Are Not Already Black.” […]
It might only be a matter of time before primetime is graced by a period drama centered around the Platonic Academy. With Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of Eminent Philosophers, we have reliable source material. And with academia’s insistence on teaching the Classics, we have indication that interest in Plato and his cohort has not dwindled in the slightest these […]
In Indonesia a common form of greeting is: “Have you showered today?” This may sound strange to us, but it’s really hot there, and people take many little cold showers throughout the day called mandis. Asking whether someone has showered is the same as someone in the grocery store saying, “how’re you doing?” to us. […]
Kowloon Walled City was a densely populated, largely ungoverned settlement in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. In 1987, the Walled City […]
Why am I – as Steve Miller once sang, ‘right here at home’ – at Anobium? I had initially considered answering this question – posed to me by a friend who had considered me a ‘guy who didn’t go in for the bizarre for bizarre’s sake’ – as an essay proper, but then that didn’t quite seem right. […]
