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September 2010
Beyond Just War in Afghanistan
BYAre current U.S. government peace-building practices enough? What does it take to build peace?
Read full articleFar afield: Edge of allegiance
BYWhen Notre Dame lined up for a last-second field goal against USC in 1986, I couldn’t watch. A second-half comeback built to such a nerve-fraying crescendo that I had to leave the house.
Read full articleClassic Molarity 28-32
BYStrips 28-31 of the popular comic strip Molarity, which previewed in The Observer in 1977.
Read full articleThe Playroom: Duct tape
BYAs I hear the familiar sound of my son falling down the stairs, my first reaction is not one of concern or even a shred of the protective instinct found in your average ant colony. My first reaction is one of defeat. “Damn, we are going to miss our portrait-sitting again.”
Read full articleThe Genius in Me
BYWhy are some people more creative than others? How can people make themselves more creative?
Read full articleKeeping the New
BYOne of the answers to an eternal question I stumbled across in the course of my undergraduate experience at Notre Dame goes like this: with age we get more timid and conservative because we suffer from hardening of the categories.
Read full articleNetworthy ND 6
BYOur offerings this week range from a peek at football coach Brian Kelly’s favorite painting to a professor’s defense of Catholic higher education. There’s lots more, including something about coach Mike Brey in a kilt.
Read full articleWinter Keep
BYHelping a herd of mustangs survive the brutal season also meant preserving a vital element of the American spirit.
Read full articleEchoes: Who Knew? The New Lou
BYWhy am I talking to Lou Holtz? Like every other Notre Dame fan, I’m trying to wake up the echoes. Trying to map a direct connection from the uncertain present to the glorious past.
Read full articleBuy my book, please
BYThese days, authors are learning they have to be marketers as well. “It really behooves the authors to promote the hell out of their books,” says a literary agent..
Read full articleThe Playroom: The iPad dilemma
BYAs I am sitting there at my dining room table, I’m thinking about the joy of drinking coffee and reading the Sunday paper, and then it hits me like a lightning bolt. Do people with iPads read the Sunday paper?
Read full articleFar afield: Commercial interruption
BYThe Heisman Trust requires little of its winners beyond eligibility, which explains why certain notorious former winners still have their stiff-arm statue. Banishing Bush alone from USC history still seems gratuitous.
Read full articleUnbalanced: Doctor, doctor
BYAfter surviving a morning of teeth-rattling chills, I checked WebMD to see what illness my symptoms might indicate. I was expecting a list of flu, strep throat, bronchitis. Normal stuff. Instead, the first thing I saw was: Plague.
Read full articleThe Playroom: School daze
BYLast week my son started first grade. I cried. He was fine. He looked handsome in his uniform. “William, you look like a future CEO!” my friend exclaimed.
Read full articleSoundings: A whole new game
BYSometimes you get blindsided.There I was, happily getting ready for the season opener. Notre Dame-Purdue. Launch of the Brian Kelly era. Then my wife reported the weather forecast. That’s when it happened.
Read full articleTV or Not TV: Work of Reality TV
BYWork of Art brought together two different cultural milieus: reality TV and the world of art. But did it work?
Read full articleThe Playroom: Summer’s end
BYMy daughter climbs the stairs of the playground equipment. The wind wraps curls into her eyes and she turns to me and smiles. “Look at me, Mommy!” It is then I see a butterfly lying in the sand.
Read full articleFar Afield: You enthuse, you lose
BYNotre Dame has a new football coach. But getting excited about Brian Kelly may be a perilous thing. Still, it’s hard to resist …
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