The evolution of the Alef-Bet, or: the Alphabet.

Avi was back in London. He’d been back in Israel for family matters for a year or so during which I’d paid him a visit, but now he’s back here, though I’m not sure why. He wouldn’t admit it, but I think life must have felt…

A poem demonstrating the irregularity of English spelling and pronunciation. Written by Dutch writer, traveller, and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité (1870–1946), it includes about 800 examples of irregular spelling.   Gerard Nolst Trenité…

There is no word in the Dutch language for ‘anxiety’. There are words that come close, like ‘worried’, ‘concerned’, ‘fearful’ or ‘scared’, but none of them come close to the dreadful experience of actual, real anxiety. Does…

Some memorable unexpected dance moments in film. 5. Forced dance in Beetlejuice (1988) As if dancing isn't already like being possessed. 4. Napoleon Dynamite charity dance (2004) A very funny film with a hilarious way of helping…

The son of Ecuadorean immigrants, Roberto Carlos Lange, better known by his stage name Helado Negro was born in South Florida in 1980. His childhood was suffused with tropical heat, humidity, hurricanes, all refracted with the rich sounds…

One time on a visit to my father he got out this old record player from the attic and put on a 78 rpm (I believe he got from his father); a Sovjet-labelled record from the Fyodorov Sisters and it was as like a call from another world. There…

The true innovators. The favorite and the rare.                               &nbs…