■ I have a minor flurry (a squall?) of new pieces to share this week, as several things I wrote in late 2018 got published all at once: At Dissent Magazine (subscribe!), I have a long review essay about new books by Carl Minzner (End of an Era) and Elizabeth Economy (The Third Revolution) thatContinue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Still Wrapping Up 2018 Edition”
Category Archives: Ann Arbor
Looking Back, Moving Forward
Happy New Year! January 1, of course, is a day traditionally spent thinking about the year that has just ended and making plans for the one that lies ahead, and I have been doing exactly that. I feel like 2018 was several years crammed into one: both in my own life and in the worldContinue reading “Looking Back, Moving Forward”
Weekly Wanderings: Ringing in the Year of the Dog Edition
• 新年快乐！狗年大吉！(Happy New Year! Happy Year of the Dog!) Most of my Western New Year’s resolutions have already fallen by the wayside, but the Lunar New Year on Friday gave me the chance to start fresh all over again. My #1 resolution—a recurring one, I suppose—is to write here more, and to write more regularly.Continue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Ringing in the Year of the Dog Edition”
Raise a Glass of Pumpkin Beer to La Rentrée in October
Over the past few days, I’ve been working hard to gain control of my ever-exploding inbox, which is in even worse shape than usual because somewhere around mid-September I fell behind on the dozens (seriously) of email newsletters I subscribe to. I love reading all these newsletters, which regularly lead me to interesting links thatContinue reading “Raise a Glass of Pumpkin Beer to La Rentrée in October”
Weekly Wanderings: Heavy and Light Edition
This has been a very weird week for me: although I’ve been surrounded by a bright and cheery Michigan summer filled with fun things to do, I’ve also been preoccupied with the many dark and dispiriting news stories surrounding the death of Chinese Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo, who died on Thursday while still serving anContinue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Heavy and Light Edition”
Weekly Wanderings: Roadblocks, Detours, and Roundabouts Edition
▪ How many times this spring did I tell myself, “Tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll get up and start writing again. Tomorrow for sure”? Pretty much every day. But as the near-silence around these parts indicates, I never followed through. The #1 reason for this is that for the past several months I’ve found it nearly impossibleContinue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Roadblocks, Detours, and Roundabouts Edition”
Women’s March Ann Arbor
I wasn’t among the thousands of women filling planes and buses headed to Washington, D.C. last weekend for Saturday’s Women’s March. Instead, I was able to participate closer to home, as Ann Arbor hosted one of the hundreds of marches in solidarity with D.C. While we may not have had the numbers of D.C., NewContinue reading “Women’s March Ann Arbor”
Weekly Wanderings: Snow Globe Edition
▪ We got our first significant snowfall of the winter in Ann Arbor last Sunday—just over 11 inches—and it has snowed a little bit more nearly every day since. In the Mid-Atlantic, of course, a snow accumulation in double digits would bring cities to a standstill; here, though, nobody seems at all fazed. I wasContinue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Snow Globe Edition”
Weekly Wanderings: Leftover Halloween Candy Edition
▪ I think Halloween is a fun holiday. I haven’t dressed up in a long time, but I like seeing the costumes that people devise, and who doesn’t enjoy handing out candy to (mostly appreciative) children? As an adult, though, I haven’t lived anywhere with active trick-or-treating: I was either in grad student housing (YaleContinue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Leftover Halloween Candy Edition”
Weekly Wanderings: Not a Kid Anymore Edition
▪ I turned 34 in the middle of October, meaning that I’m now in the last year of ever qualifying for any “____ under 35” lists. Getting older doesn’t, in and of itself, bother me, although I have been having a few more “Whoa, [incredibly successful person] is only X years old, what have IContinue reading “Weekly Wanderings: Not a Kid Anymore Edition”
Maura Elizabeth Cunningham 