A different kind of urban garden may be the key to feeding ourselves locally — Let’s talk about mushrooms. I’ve been comparing their underground stealthiness to Russian democracy, describing how they grow out of sight, keeping their peace until the right moment. I’ve pointed out that you never do know when they’re going to burst into the light and turn the world upside down. But…

Meta’s stock collapse revealed what I already knew — I quit Facebook, Instagram and every other property owned by what is now called Meta nearly two years ago. It was at the time a rash decision and at first many of my friends and family wondered where I had “gone.” Soon, though, the people who mattered “found” me. It…

My search for an acre of escape — It was the rock that caught my eye. Dappled with lichen and lighted by the afternoon sun, it appeared to be the perfect place for contemplation. …

This is the year to de-center your smartphone — For the sake of yourself and your country, it is time to get off your phone. Yes, I know you needed to see the latest inquiries into January 6th, the most recent QAnon theories, the debunking of those theories and then the debunking of the debunking. Then perhaps you’ll want…

Tech’s war against the flâneur — My father-in-law used to like to come into the City to take pictures of people’s faces. He doesn’t come in much any more. Everyone is looking down at their phones. This raises a critical point: the loss of random encounters that are the basis of being what the French call…

Part twelve of an occasional speculation — George Washington stood in the wings of Madison Square Garden and prepared to make his first public address in 232 years. There had been much fussing over how he should present himself to the New York audience and even some debate as to whether the delegates would even recognize him…

Who else did crappy, meaningless work in their youth? — The heads were in Barry’s trailer and I noticed them every time I went to drop off the ticket from the lumber yard. For a longtime I thought Barry’s name was Berry. In Colorado that was how people pronounced a name like Barry. I never asked how it was spelled…

The founder of Glasnost died yesterday but so did one of Glasnost’s staunchest defenders — Everyone I know who traveled to the former Soviet Union and worked there during that all-too-brief window of openness in the 1990s had someone watching their back. For me that person was Manana Aslamazyan. On August 30th, 2022 she was blindsided by a car in Yerevan, Armenia and killed. …

This crop is a climate change champ — Do you have a difficult garden? I do. I’ve been working the same slab of concrete here at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan, trying to achieve what I call “salad self-sufficiency” for 15 years. …