I love this video from the Met about their conservation efforts on Degas’s The Little Fourteen-Year-Old Dancer. The sculpture really stands out to anyone who has seen it because it is mixed media in a way that makes it seem even more lifelike than just the realistic rendering affords it. The fabric elements of the sculpture […]
They are exceptional indeed. Back when I was in London for research (attending an archaeology conference and looking at manuscripts at the Wellcome, British Library, and Bodleian), I took a detour to the Twinings flagship shop and museum at 216 Strand. Read More
How can a home baker get both great flavor and that incredible crust? It’s the holy grail of amateur baking. A really beautiful, shatteringly crisp bread crust, covering a pillowy sponge of irregular air pockets. I’ve mastered sourdough pancakes (feed the starter the night before, don’t add too much flour to make the batter, and […]
In this series, I’m talking about big issues in how we think about our scientific past. This week I’m dealing with the specter of epidemic disease. Read the first post in this series, on ancient Greece and math. Read the second post, on the Scientific Revolution. Read the third post, on astronomy and astrology. It’s […]
COVID-19, or coronavirus, is now at the point that epidemiologists believe it can’t be contained to China. From an epidemiological standpoint, that means that now, instead of having one focal point to which all cases of the disease can be traced, we will have any number of focal points. This is what it means for […]
Lately I’ve been telling myself that if I could just set aside a big chunk of time – I always arbitrarily think of it as 4 hours – I would be able to focus and get over the hurdle of the chapter I’m trying to write. Read More A running list of things/people that have […]
This morning marked a major success when I made it downstairs with both of my children by myself. This is going to be an interesting year. My husband loves the Japanese idea of kuyashii, made famous by the Niki Nakayama episode of Chef’s Table. Kuyashii, Nakayama explains in the episode, is the desire to prove other people wrong. […]
The words “revise and resubmit” carry with them a particular emotional response in academia: a unique combination of hopeful self-satisfaction, anxiety, and existential dread. Its a trite truism that we all need to learn to accept criticism. Academia turns accepting criticism into an art, that also happens to be part of our daily workload. Revise […]
Last year, my husband and I were looking to buy a house in the small California city of San Leandro, on the edge of Oakland. Being a historian and a nerd (redundant, I know), I looked into the history of the town and its name. I was surprised, delighted, and eventually horrified to find it […]
Stop, you’re pronouncing it wrong. It’s not LAT-keys, it’s not LAHT-kuhz. (I don’t care if a Polish person told you it’s the former, that person wasn’t Jewish, that pronunciation isn’t right.) It’s closest to LAHT-kiss. Glad we got that out of the way. Last night was the first night of Chanukah (pronounced with a gutteral […]
Like most people who’ve seen it, I’m feeling that the new Netflix series on the history of the video game industry is… lackluster. The problem is that it’s a history of the industry. The major points in the story are technological paradigm shifts, legal battles, and corporate marketing strategies. These highlights are filled in with […]
For something as stupidly easy to make as couscous, it’s amazing how rarely I want to make it. The problem is that couscous typically requires its own pot, and somehow I draw the line at cleaning a pot if I’m making myself lunch. A pan, fine. But a pot is a hair too far. On […]
Question: what’s the difference between paper and fabric? Read More It’s hard not to mock the classic “hang in there, baby” sign, or it’s recent equivalents in rose gold calligraphy. It’s so vapidly upbeat, oblivious to the complicated obstacles that stand in the way of happiness or success, as if finding fulfillment is a matter […]
The other day, a completely innocuous thing happened while I was at work: my coworker complemented my hairstyle. She and I have just about the same hair in color and texture, but that day we had opposite styles – hers was in full fabulous curl, and mine was braided down against the sides of my […]
