For Sarah Elizabeth Williams Gelfand and Scott David Schilson Jr. (wedding), the intense atmosphere and demanding coursework of the N.Y.U. masters of laws in taxation program — intended for lawyers who wish to deepen their knowledge in that particularly abstruse area of jurisprudence — weren’t impediments to falling in love. “It’s maybe not the most romantic place,” said Ms. Gelfand, 31, of the yearlong program. “But I realized I really liked spending time with Scott because he would make even this very dry subject matter really lighthearted and funny.”
Despite their heavy workload, being students afforded Ms. Gelfand and Mr. Schilson uncommon flexibility when they began dating during the winter of 2017. “We were able to compartmentalize the school stuff and then take advantage of a lot of the city,” said Mr. Schilson, 30. They spent much of their free time that spring sampling New York’s restaurants and bakeries. “I think we were like 50 percent study, 50 percent food,” he said.
“I have seldom been conscious of working hard. Most of my writing has been an instinctive pleasure, a playful impulse, as in running down a grassy slope or exploring a woodland path. The things wrote themselves; and when I dropped the pen, and rose from my writing-table, I seemed to awake from a trance and to be myself again.”
'Desultory, Rambling, Inconclusive
The Calvert Journal recommends no less than 100 books to read from Eastern Europe and Central Asia -- lots of good books that are indeed worth your attention.
Why We Have Difficulty Trusting Science
Precisely the same methods, and precisely the same leaps of brilliance and faith that led in some cases to science that has withstood the test of centuries, led also to results that were rapidly cast into oblivion. Wish as we might, little more than the passage of time and thus hindsight tells us what was “good science” as opposed to a poor guess, based on faulty inferences and deep misunderstandings. – Los Angeles Review of Books
Why Artificial Intelligence Will Never Write Compelling Novels
If computers could do literature, they could invent like Wells and Homer, taking over from sci-fi authors to engineer the next utopia-dystopia. And right now, you probably suspect that computers are on the verge of doing just so… Yet despite all this gaudy credentialing, the hoax is a complete cheat, a total scam, a fiction of the grossest kind. Computers can’t grasp the most lucid haiku. Nor can they pen the clumsiest fairytale. Computers cannot read or write literature at all. And they never, never will. – Nautilus
14 Pink Animals That Wow and Woo TreeHugger
A Field Guide to Heart-Shaped Foods New Yorker
Kraft Introduces…Pink Mac and Cheese? Leite’s Culinaria
Chart: How Many People Are Looking for Love Online? The Wire
How a public uprising caused a province built on fossil fuels to reverse course on coal mining The Narwhal
391-Year-Old Bonsai Tree Survived Hiroshima Bombings and Keeps Growing My Modern Met (furzy). It is exceptionally handsome.
Q: In my book club, I am rarely able to finish the nominated book. Should I confess to this, or is it fine to continue pretending that I’ve read it, and nodding and agreeing with what everybody else says?
B.C., Killara, NSW
A: Book clubs have never been about books. They’re really just a way to get out of the house once a month and eat lots of cheese (and not just cheese, sometimes crackers, too; those book club snack platters can get pretty fancy-pants). So really, most members of every book club are probably pretending they’ve finished the book, nodding their heads like they agree with everyone else, offering opinions using quotes lifted directly off the cover: “I thought it was a thought-provoking tour de force! A thrilling debut from an original new voice! Compelling, nuanced, poignant, you must get out and buy this book! …uhhhh … which you already have … but buy it again, it’s that good!“
Of course, you may be a member of one of those freaky clubs where members actually finish the books. I’ve heard about them: apparently they serve cheese and crackers and prosciutto rolled into little cigars; they’re very pretentious. You still don’t have to finish the book: when it’s your turn to say something, just offer a generic response that can apply to every book ever written – “I particularly liked how the main character started out as this kind of person … but at the end, they were that kind of person! Hey, can someone pass the triple-cream brie?” Then stuff your mouth with brie so if you’re asked to elaborate, you can point to your stuffed mouth and shrug helplessly.
Remember that book club is over when the cheese runs out, so eat lots, eat fast and get out early. Cheese is the non-book-finishing book clubber’s most useful friend.
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