Stories for December 2008

December 14, 2008

The Diving Bell and the Brain Tumor

From his vantage point: sewing Jean-Dominique Bauby’s eye shut after his stroke. Still from the film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Today is my mother’s birthday: more accurately, the 87th anniversary of her birth. She died in 1971…

December 6, 2008

The Composite Sum of Obama’s Face

Beauty has always been a product of the social attitudes of the time. During the Renaissance voluptuous Rafaelesque women were the standard aspiration while in the 1960s, and certainly today, thin —even an emaciated look— is often what people…