I’ve had a battered paperback titled Drugs and the Mind on my shelves for a while now, unread. As I’ve begun a minor purge of my shelves to get rid of books in bad condition, I’ve finally decided to give it a gander before giving it a toss. Written by one Robert S. DeRopp, itContinue reading “The New York Academy of Medicine on Opiate Addiction circa 1955”
Category Archives: General
The Glamorous Life: Waiting Tables on the Upper West Side
In the summer of 1994, broke and increasingly desperate, I roamed New York City, or rather, just Manhattan, looking for work as a bartender. I had worked as one before, in Newark, and hoped that I would find an employment venue which would provide me with the Holy Grail of bartending work: an interesting barContinue reading “The Glamorous Life: Waiting Tables on the Upper West Side”
Walking the City: Random Walks Through Manhattan Streets
In Street Life: Becoming Part of the City, Joseph Mitchell wrote: What I really like to do is wander aimlessly in the city. I like the walk the streets by day and by night. It is more than a liking, a simple liking–it is an aberration. Every so often, for example, around nine in theContinue reading “Walking the City: Random Walks Through Manhattan Streets”
Walking, Head Down, on a Damp and Grey Day: How Virtuous It Is
On days like this, many residents of the US eastern seaboard are apt to question their decision to ever inhabit these spaces. The temperature is in the thirties (that’s just a couple of degrees above freezing point for all the folks living in Celsius-land); a steady, persistent drizzle is falling; and the most familiar colorContinue reading “Walking, Head Down, on a Damp and Grey Day: How Virtuous It Is”
The Mad Men Are Serious Downers
I’m only three episodes deep into Mad Men, and I’m already struck by how grim the show is. There’s misogyny, sexism, racial and ethnic prejudice, sexual prudery (of a kind), depressing suburban life, loveless marriages, loveless affairs, rigid gender roles, corporate language, the vapidity of advertising, and smoking indoors. And alcohol, lots of it. MainlyContinue reading “The Mad Men Are Serious Downers”
BDS, Brooklyn College, and Dismissing Dershowitz (For the Last Time)
Some more direct consideration of comments on my BDS at Brooklyn College and Dershowitz posts (here; here; and here). These are now settling into a familiar pattern of repetition of the same claims again and again and again, so rather than responding to each one of the comments directly, I will address them en masseContinue reading “BDS, Brooklyn College, and Dismissing Dershowitz (For the Last Time)”
A Beating, Dimly Glimpsed, Poorly Understood
Many years ago, I saw a terrible beating and didn’t realize I was looking at one. Till much later. No experience is unmediated; without membership in a linguistic community, without a background theory, there is no immediate experience to speak of. There is no ‘given’; to ‘experience’ is to know how to deploy a certainContinue reading “A Beating, Dimly Glimpsed, Poorly Understood”
Hail to the Mighty Nurse
When I was a mere nine years old, I underwent a tonsillectomy, a minor operation that surprisingly enough, in those days, required general anesthesia. My mother spent as much time as she could with me in the hospital, but my constant companions otherwise were the military hospital’s nurses. I might not have been a teenager, butContinue reading “Hail to the Mighty Nurse”
Better Living Through Chemistry: The Decaffeinated Life
Five weeks or so ago, I quit caffeine. Cold turkey. Strictly speaking, that isn’t true: I have consumed a fair amount of decaffeinated coffee since then; there are trace amounts of caffeine in that beverage; I have also eaten many bars of chocolate, dark and otherwise. But never mind. I think my efforts count asContinue reading “Better Living Through Chemistry: The Decaffeinated Life”
Newsflash: Fatherhood Impedes Blogging
I became a father–for the first time–on Sunday, which has made blogging a little difficult. I hope to resume ‘normal service’ (well, an attenuated version thereof) sometime soon. Two nights in a maternity ward, four sleepless nights in total, a beautiful baby, an exhausted mother; it all adds up, if you catch my drift. OnContinue reading “Newsflash: Fatherhood Impedes Blogging”
Samir Chopra 