Last night, I attended a birthday party for a one-year old, extremely cute, daughter of friends of mine. Watching her vigorous, always entertaining, even if occasionally tearful, interactions with her two-year old cousin prompted some thoughts on how children exist in an interestingly idiosyncratic universe, one observable by, and sometimes even participated in, by adults,Continue reading “Children Meeting Children: Observations from the Field”
Category Archives: General
Displacements of, Not Solutions to, Philosophical Problems: A Quick Primer
A close, critical reader is worth his weight in gold. I am reminded of this whenever I share a bit of writing with someone who proceeds to clear up confusions deftly and rapidly, and sometimes, represents my position better than I had managed. In part of a rough piece of writing tucked away somewhere, IContinue reading “Displacements of, Not Solutions to, Philosophical Problems: A Quick Primer”
It’s Fall: Time to Bash the Yankees
There are many fall-time rituals: road-trips to view colorful foliage, pumpkin sculpture and surgery, undressing for Halloween, griping endlessly about the wet and gloomy weather in the North-East, dreading the setting forward of the clocks as Daylight Savings Time runs out, going back to school and college, football watching on Sundays (and Mondays, Wednesdays, andContinue reading “It’s Fall: Time to Bash the Yankees”
A Nerdy Break-Up: Leaving the Academic Life
In the past few weeks I have had several conversations–electronic and face-to-face–with folks–friends and acquaintances–that have walked away from academic careers. Though I do not have numbers to back this up, it seems such departures have become increasingly common in the modern academy. The reasons have been varied: bad job markets (some things never change; inContinue reading “A Nerdy Break-Up: Leaving the Academic Life”
The Daily Shower As Nero-ish Luxury
Sometimes the most mundane of experiences can serve as a particularly acute reminder of how my life in the present differs from that lived in the past. And sometimes that experience can serve too, to put a simple daily act into global context. For some twenty-five years now, whether in the US (1987-2000; 2002-present) orContinue reading “The Daily Shower As Nero-ish Luxury”
Birthdays, Coincidences, and Divination
I was born on the 156th anniversary of Percy Bysshe Shelley‘s expulsion–on grounds of atheism–from Oxford. (Thomas Jefferson Hogg, his collaborator on The Necessity of Atheism, was expelled with him; the two were accused of ‘contumacy in refusing certain answers put to them’ by the master and fellows of University College.) My birthday is also, remarkably enough:Continue reading “Birthdays, Coincidences, and Divination”
A Bloody Shin, Homeostasis and Automaticity
On Saturday morning, while working out in my gym and attempting to complete a series of twenty jumps on to a 24-inch box, I momentarily took my eyes off the target, stumbled, and hit my shin on the jagged edge of the box. I almost fell to the left, recovered, and completed my workout. AContinue reading “A Bloody Shin, Homeostasis and Automaticity”
Men, Women, and Public and Private Intimacy
In response to my post on male intimacy (which followed my appearance on the ABC’s Life Matters), a female friend of mine–a Brooklyner who has traveled in India–wrote to me: What about intimacy with women? I don’t necessarily mean the romantic kind of intimacy. In India men share affection with each other openly but it’sContinue reading “Men, Women, and Public and Private Intimacy”
Talkin’ ‘Bout Men Getting Up Close and Personal
Last night, I participated in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s daily show Life Matters, hosted by the ever-dynamic Natasha Mitchell on Radio National. The topic for the day was ‘Male Intimacy’. Being on live radio is a pretty strange experience; I’ve only done it once before, on John Sutton‘s excellent, but now defunct, Ghost in the Machine on EastsideContinue reading “Talkin’ ‘Bout Men Getting Up Close and Personal”
Brooklyn Cooking: My Nose’s Best Friend
One of the pleasures of living in Brooklyn, and more specifically in zip code 11218, supposedly once the most ethnically diverse zip code in the US, is the aromatic extravaganza available to one’s olfactory apparatus. In plain English: you can smell a lot of really delicious things around here. Once you are done with theContinue reading “Brooklyn Cooking: My Nose’s Best Friend”
Samir Chopra 