Word: essay
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...captain of a sports team who was also the best athlete in the Ivy League in his sport, another a leader of one of Harvard's top four student groups and the third was yours truly, who admittedly dampened his chances with, of all things, a sloppy essay. Perhaps all three of us never had a shot, but then again, perhaps our promise was grievously underestimated, just like that of an advanced standing classmate of ours who after not being endorsed for the Rhodes last year went on to win a Marshall...
...mention this history in order to introduce my real subject - the infinitely civilized, decent, and human Michel de Montaigne, sometime mayor of Bordeaux and inventor of the modern essay. Montaigne, a Catholic whose mother was a Jew, lived squarely in the middle of the religious wars, yet managed to survive them handsomely and even to be a friend to Henri of Navarre and Henri of Guise, not out of duplicity but out of sheer decency...
...plan their time off to this extent could be more than a little counterproductive. After all, could there would be nothing worse than a generation of kids who pad their resumes with "just the right amount" of down time? And, I'd imagine, nothing worse for admission officers than essay after essay about a relaxing and enlightening year off spent conducting mineralogical research in Zimbabwe...
...most famous wonk to blow a sax was, of course, Bill Clinton, the main subject of Greil Marcus's new essay collection Double Trouble: Bill Clinton and Elvis Presley in a Land of No Alternatives. Marcus, a rock-n-roll critic best known for lively volumes on Elvis, Bob Dylan and the Sex Pistols, pinpoints Clinton's appearance on Arsenio Hall as the turnaround of his 1992 presidential bid. Considered a sure loser against Bush and Perot, Clinton swaggered on stage with his tenor saxophone, wailed a few bars of "Heartbreak Hotel" and instantly won enough support to capture...
...question-and-answer setting, Leibovitz said Women started out in 1996 as a follow-up to Leibovitz's book on the Atlanta Olympics. She said the theme and inspiration came from author Susan Sontag, who wrote the essay preface to the book...