The Endangered Species Act is a controversial directive. The snail darter and spotted owl have gleaned no end of headlines, having been used to justify the preservation of huge areas of habitat. Less well known is the plight of our sea turtles, large amphibians that are in particular danger when they enter the shallows in...
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Short Constructions
You don’t have to read far into the story collection Thief of Lives before John Cheever’s name comes to mind, but after so many years of writing, Kit Reed must be used to that comparison. By now she should be replying: “Yes, but I write as well as that man did and occasionally even better....
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Family, Films, and Fallacy
There’s something about a book sale. The blood quickens, the nostrils flare, the eyes narrow. Anyway, it’s for a good cause. The “Friends of the Library” are putting it on, and somewhere among those one hundred thousand used books is at least one of value. The doors open and in we rush. Almost at once,...
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Columbus in Columbia
The American Indians are on the warpath and with good reason, it would seem. For at least two hundred years their grave sites have been desecrated simply to satisfy the curiosity of the White Man. On the defensive, archaeologists are arguing that in all cultures studied graves are one of the best sources of information....
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The Art of Turnip Truckdom
I’ll take my stand. There are a lot of topics around—collapsing savings and loans, collapsing universes, donkey basketball—on which I have skillfully walked the rail or else mumbled “no comment” while hiding my face behind a raised lapel. There is one subject, though, that I’m willing to stand up and be counted on. I like...
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A Year After Hugo
A year after Hugo: the Good Morning America helicopter made several passes over the creek today in preparation for the “one year anniversary of Hurricane Hugo” programming that was aired in September. Two of my shrimping relatives went in the ocean instead of participating in the ground-based interviews filmed in advance. Surely a good sign....