Men should practice saying, "I don't know." Try it in front of a mirror: "I don't know." Practice alternative ways of saying it: "I have no idea." "I haven't really thought about it." "I'd have to bone up a bit." Say it until it comes naturally to your lips. Say it until it crowds out the impulse to mansplain. Eventually, your Male Answer Syndrome will subside. It might even go into remission.  ​ Obviously, if you are a cardiologist and someone asks about heart attacks, you a

I've always enjoyed espionage fiction, especially the subgenre that centers on innocents/amateurs who get caught up in a situation they don't fully understand. I just finished Robert Littell's addition to this canon, "The Amateur," published in 1981 -- a moment, let's recall, when the Soviet bloc appeared to be thriving and powerful. ​ Littell, Robert: The Amateur (1981) Espionage Charlie Heller is a CIA cryptanalyst engaged to Sarah Diamond, who is murdered by terrorists in

We saw the Messiah the other evening, which we have taken to doing at Christmas, with a full choir, an orchestra heavy on strings, and four stunning soloists. It was, as always, a deeply satisfying and emotional experience.  ​ The Messiah, written as an Easter oratorio and first performed in Dublin in 1742, is often presented as a Christmas piece in this country, and audiences especially love the Hallelujah chorus. And it is beautiful. The piece recalls for us a time when fai

I started reading Charm City Rocks, Matthew Norman's rom-com from 2023. It's a delightful story about a divorced single dad, a music lover who lives over a record store in Baltimore, who crushed on the drummer of a briefly famous all-woman rock band in his younger years. Enter the object of said crush, trying to live out her life without falling into an abyss of regret about her truncated music career. Their meet-cute, driven by the dad's 18-year-old son, accidentally stoned

Great meeting of the Gaithersburg Creative Writers last night. Richard read an episode from his memoir that focused on his experiences as an orderly in a mental hospital during the summer of 1960, when he was beginning law school and preparing to launch what became a very successful Foreign Service career. Richard's writing is always deft, and animated by a wry, almost dead-pan tone that finds humor in daily life. Dan read a powerful reminiscence of his experience as a video

December 16, 2025 ​ I've been reading  Clown Town,  the latest installment in Mick Herron's "Slow Horses" series. It is the fourth or fifth in that series I have read, and I have watched the AppleTV+ adaptation. I've generally enjoyed both, but I am finding the books increasingly turgid and self-indulgent. It's almost like Herron is so busy showing off the many ways he can imagine for the frustrated spies to insult and denigrate one another that he occasionally loses track of