Grateful to Kenyon Review for publishing my essay about misspent time, the impulse to identify easy-to-hate scapegoats for societal ills, and wayward Marxists in business attire.

The best writing -- and most essential reading -- I've encountered this year. And it features unexpected insights about clowns ("Ali felt that it was unnatural to perform solo. 'Clowning is all about the collective,' he explained.")

One of the chief legacies of Orientalism today is the widespread idea that Palestinian lives have less moral worth for reasons you can only grasp if you are an expert on the mysterious dynamics of "the Middle East"

crying my eyes out. how do you move forward with this. how do you move forward knowing this is one story out of hundreds of thousands