ArcaMax

Frederick Law Olmsted is well known for pioneering landscape architecture. We know him as the man behind Central Park in New York City, which was his first major park project. He is also well known for his work on the U.S. Capitol grounds and the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. What many may not realize is that Olmsted was also a...Read more

When I was 19, I knew a much older man who'd grown up in 1930s Alabama.

"We didn't celebrate the Fourth of July," he told me. "For us, it was the day Vicksburg fell."

Vicksburg, Mississippi, fell to Union troops on July 4, 1863. The Confederates surrendered, as was their habit. Long memories still mourn the Lost Cause of Black backs whipped ...Read more

Europe is now the fastest heating continent, and Paris is suffering greatly under 100-plus Fahrenheit temperatures. That has inspired some conservative Americans to politicize the French aversion to air conditioning. In return, many in France are blaming Americans' burning of planet-warming fossil fuels to power their ACs.

Whose voice hits ...Read more

He still hasn't given up. In the wake of the 6-3 decision of the Supreme Court tossing out his Executive Order abolishing birthright citizenship, President Donald Trump was back at it, insisting that Congress should act. He cared enough about the case that he took the unprecedented step of attending the oral argument. But he brushed off the ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- No, friends, Romans, countrymen, it wasn't enough to murder the White House Rose Garden.

It wasn't enough to tear down its stately East Wing, where guests gathered and mingled. It wasn't enough to brandish "Donald J. Trump" over "John F. Kennedy" on the marble wall of the national performing arts center.

Oh, and he just closed ...Read more

"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," reads the iconic welcome to the world's oppressed inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. Emma Lazarus, the poet who penned those words, had herself helped Jewish refugees from the anti-Semitic pogroms of Eastern Europe who had fled to our shores in the late 19th ...Read more

One of the saddest posts this weekend featured Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a moderate, welcoming three Democratic Socialist of America candidates who had won primaries with a handful votes. They included Darializa Avila Chevalier, a nutcase who called for abolishing the borders, police and prisons in addition to accusing Joe ...Read more

The little girl had to go to the bathroom. They went into the cafe, one of a small chain, and the barista was happy to help. The father, who wasn't really thirsty, bought a cup of coffee anyway and added a tip to thank her.

A few hours later, a picture of the man, apparently taken from the store's surveillance camera, appeared in an Instagram...Read more

In his clueless and clumsy style, JD Vance has unmasked the cynical corruption at the core of Donald Trump's White House. Speaking at the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum on June 25, the vice president said, "As I joked ... backstage, if Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be like a 12-hour news story. The idea that it would have ...Read more

During the pandemic, I did something stupid: I published a book. Bookstores were closed, so authors obviously could not promote their books by going on tour. Like a lot of other titles that came out in 2021, "The Stringer" -- a graphic novel written by me and drawn by Pablo Callejo -- got lost in the shuffle.

Too bad, and not just for my ...Read more

Last weekend, our family participated in the local pride parade with a group from my husband's work. Before the parade, our son wanted to get a pride flag to wave. He has always loved flags and can identify the flags for most countries of the world. Flags are powerful symbols of identity, which is why the artist Gilbert Baker chose to make a ...Read more

I mowed the lawn the other day.

Well, I kind of mowed the lawn. I missed a lot of spots, and I didn't weedwack the borders or trim the shrubbery.

Mostly, I sat on the front steps and drank beer. I drank eight beers, if you wanna count. I say that because if you drink while you work, somebody usually wants to count. I threw the eight empty ...Read more

Yes, Mayor Zohran Mamdani's socialist picks just knocked off some Democratic incumbents in New York City. They included surprising defeats, especially that of Rep. Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Espaillat lost to Darializa Avila Chevalier, whose social media swims with past calls to abolish the police, free ...Read more

So much for a peace treaty. President Donald Trump is back to making threats.

In a phone interview on Sunday with Fox News, Trump threatened to attack Iran and take over the Strait of Hormuz if Tehran interfered with passage through the waterway. He told Fox's Trey Yingst that he warned Iranian officials, "You close (the Strait of Hormuz) and...Read more

What a glorious day in June.

The Barack Obama Presidential Center opening in Chicago gave us a complete contradiction of the times we've been living through. Community rather than chaos, lightness versus darkness, and hope instead of fear.

I might add: beautiful music and language that lifted up instead of tearing down. A garden, a library, ...Read more

Once upon a time, conservative ideologues opposed government interference in the holy magic of the marketplace.

Take energy policy, for example. Right-wing cheerleaders of fossil fuels demanded that the government keep its fat thumb off the scale of free market competition between Big Oil and those frilly new "alternative" sources of energy. ...Read more