“SO WHOSE ‘SWAN LAKE’ IS IT?” Original Petipa choreography for the position they talk about on page one is obviously much better, yes? (Also: NYClean, so you can read the article.) Read more

SIMCHA FISHER, FOR MOTHER’S DAY. Read more

Perhaps if I wanted to be understood or to understand I would bamboozle myself into belief, but I am a reporter; God exists only for leader-writers.-Graham Greene, The Quiet American Read more

“THE CHILDREN’S SUBLIME.” My piece on Maurice Sendak. The New York Times obituary was also quite good. RIP. Read more

I’LL BE IN DENVER! On Monday, May 14, at Theology on Tap, doing my thing. Here’s a rundown from the Denver Catholic Register. I hope to meet some of you there! Read more

THIS IS PRETTY FASCINATING. Via The Fix. Read more

All aridity of spirit results from sublimations that are badly assumed, from the forced maimings of a vocation that was poorly understood, from a disguised, paralyzing refusal.-much more here Read more

But the right to revise traditions is not everybody’s right; it has to be won by learning their moral truths as deeply as they can be learned. Those who have difficult vocations to explore need the tradition to help the exploration. The tradition may not have the final word, but it is certain they will never find the final word if they have failed to profit from the words the tradition offers. And if it should really be the case... Read more

HOUSTON IS SAFER TODAY: …Think about what you’re putting on the air. There’s no law that requires you to accommodate the police every time they want to flex their muscles on the evening news. In one of the videos linked above, the news team shoves a camera into a woman’s face as she’s stepping into the wagon. The reporter then shouts questions at the woman—this just after the reporter points out the possibility that the woman she’s humiliating and zooming... Read more

10 BEAUTIFUL BUILDINGS INSPIRED BY FAMOUS BOOKS. A lot of these are terrific–and can I just say that I love that the Hobbit one is a motel? My only disappointment is that it isn’t somewhere in Lolitaville, USA. Read more