Things
In Which the Magpie Takes to the Field
De Maria’s field of lightning . . . Thoreau’s “botany boxes” . . . James Schuyler’s salute to the past
In Which the Magpie Makes a Ghost Map of the City
The haunting of Rooney Mara . . . a delivery room turned walk-in closet . . . Ain Gordon’s “Radicals in Miniature”
In Which the Magpie Seeks the Zeitgeist of the Losers
The stuff we talk about after we finish with our weekly outrage.
In Praise of Stripes
Zebras and tigers, candy canes and barber poles, bumblebees on awnings!
Cast-Iron Pans and Paying It Forward
“Hold a cast-iron skillet and you’ll feel the weight of this history through the handle.”
I Was a Seventh-Grade Book Censor
“Through books, the best parts of me could breathe and be seen. No boy was going to fuck that up for me.”
In Which the Magpie Considers What a Giant Might See
Puppies . . . daffodils . . . surveillance-proof cloaks
Looking for Anne of Green Gables
A fan-pilgrim expects to find a special world, a sense of belonging. I just wasn’t sure what I’d find on Anne’s island.
On Power Between Women: The Handmaid’s Tale Revisited
We know the damage of othering. What about the ravages of Same-ing?