“Happiness writes in white ink on a white page.” The French writer Henry de Montherlant said it; these days, the words have been spilling from Salman Rushdie’s lips as he makes the rounds talking about his new memoir, “Knife: Mediations After an Attempted Murder.” I just started reading the book in which, as the title suggests, Rushdie reflects on matters of life and death after a … Continue reading White ink on a white page
Today, on the first day of 2023, I begin a new adventure. My full-time hire date at the University of Georgia was listed as January 1. I found that curious for all the obvious reasons. Few people actually work on New Year’s Day; even fewer when it falls on a Sunday. And most certainly, no one in the hallowed halls of academia. Still, I … Continue reading New year, new beginnings
On the 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, I called a man who lost his son in Baghdad for a story I was writing for CNN. Anniversaries of tragedies, he told me, were for people who did not suffer. What he meant is that every day is an anniversary for those who have lost loved ones. Not a day went by, he told me, that … Continue reading Of anniversaries and the stories that really matter
This morning, the University of Georgia felt post-apocalyptic. The day after disaster, a lot of folks were regretting too many beers and mason jar glasses of vino verde as they tried to make sense of their team’s unraveling. How did Georgia blow its first chance since 1980 to win the national college football championship? But we soldiered on. Even though most of campus showed no signs of life, … Continue reading Yeah, we were bummed but we soldiered on at Georgia
