Squatting in the coppery mud of the drainage ditch behind my cousin’s house, we searched for fish, saw none. We found a speckled frog instead, unspooling a long, gelatinous thread of black eggs in the water. Then fire ants— my feet a blaze of pain, a fumbling dance, and fact and memory begin to stutter. What happened next? What curses did I utter? And how did I ever get back over the fence? I remember having a kind of reverence for the whole affair…… More »
The raft that means “a great number” is not related at all to the raft that carries people or their possessions in the water. The two words are homonyms. —Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins If only there were a boat, low and long and loaded with all we’d brought or built: the fatal inattentions, anxieties and tics that time had sanctified, our good and bad intentions, rages, lapses, and aches. If only it were…… More »
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Beyond the BRICs
A look at the next big global economies—and the rise of a global middle class. Read more › |
