Stillman Brown is on vaca-, uh, retreat. Tomorrow I embark upon my first meditation retreat, at Karme Choling in Vermont, with my kid sister and the fearless and jovial Ethan Nichtern. A familiar mixture of anxiety and innocuous, bubbling excitement kept me up last night, like a kid before his first day of sleep-away camp,…

Sorry for the interruption, but I had to post this. Here’s how our President left the G-8 summit today, according to Telegraph, a UK paper: “The American leader, who has been condemned throughout his presidency for failing to tackle climate change, ended a private meeting with the words: “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluter.” He…

I’m very much an enthusiast for localism. Lately I’ve been interested in local book clubs, and thanks in large part to meetup.com I’m now juggling no less than three. In theory, at least. All in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, near my home. The only one I’ve attended so far is the North Brooklyn Classics Book Club. Having…

SPOILER ALERT!!! I might as well play it safe and let you know ahead of time that there may be some unintentional spoilers in this post. So if you haven’t seen the movie yet and you’re concerned about not getting the full emotional impact of the film, read this later. With that out of the…

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