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...