This weekend on the Dish, Andrew analyzed the state of play as America approaches the fiscal cliff, provided reality checks on both climate change and legalizing marijuana, highlighted the British foreign secretary's thoughts on new Israeli settlements, and noted Timothy Geithner's economic optimism.
In matters of faith, doubt, and philosophy, Neil deGrasse Tyson wasn't sure if the universe has a purpose, Edward J. Blum explained how artistic depictions of Jesus mirrored America's fraught racial history, Adam Roberts argued that atheists have something to teach the followers of Jesus, Yoram Hazony deconstructed our attempts to describe God, and Glenn Loury told his son why he goes to church despite doubting God's existence. Leszek Kołakowski wondered if human beings can be truly happy, Deirdre McCloskey critiqued economics for not understanding love, and Elena Passarello listed the ways human speech is a miracle.
In literary and arts coverage, Stephen Marche declared that we're living in a golden age for writing and writers, Robert Zaretsky pondered Albert Camus's continuing relevance, Ben Schwarz detailed Virginia Woolf's romance with reading, and Joanna Scott recounted William Faulkner's trouble with horses. Joan Acocella asked why so many great books have bad endings, Leslie Jamison explored the function of faulty memories in memoir writing, Hephzibah Anderson dissected the origins of clichés, and Rob Orchard broke down the sex scenes in the Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy. William Deresiewicz contended that food wasnt art, Jerry Saltz put out a call on Facebook for artists to create fake paintings, and those noted artists of our time, pornstars, proved to be happier than most of us. Read Saturday's poem here and Sunday's here.
In assorted coverage, we asked Bill McKibben anything here and Alex Massie here. Ben Yagoda considered the resurgence of the word lady, Fran Abrams reflected on the increasing anxiety about the children in our midst, Life Hacks taught us to open wine bottles without a corkscrew, Darius Kazemi created the Amazon Random Shopper, Linda Besner appraised a study suggesting that maternal grandparents are the more important ones, Randall Munroe did the math that shows its not worth your time to pick up a penny, and Lindsay Abrams summed up research on the health benefits of coffee. MHBs here and here, FOTDs here and here, VFYWs here and here, and the latest window contest here.
– M.S.
(Photo by Kevin Dooley)
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