In November of 1877, the sultry southern city of New Orleans became home to an accomplished journalist who was to become the most exotic of writers in an era of exotic writers. Born to an undisciplined Greek woman and a rakish Irishman serving in the British occupation army in Greece in 1850, Lafcadio Hearn spent…

Brexit is one thing. Cultural appropriation is quite another. Before British Conservatives go looking for their lost mojo, they need to get a clue.

Time to get another punch on your Punchnel’s Punchcard. This one’s about stuff we get for free and what that costs everyone involved.

“*This position is physically demanding.*/*This position is NOT topless.*/*You must provide own tail.*” A new poem by Christina M. Rau.

I should not have traveled; this much became apparent. I remained delicate since a previous surgery six months before. Yet I had succumbed to the lure of possible happiness. I am a law professor and had been invited to a conference in New York. I dashed off to Manhattan and drank like a bacchante. I…

“Up from he who once/said that the words of the dead are modified/in the guts of the living.” A new poem by Allison Rhodes.

1. The Tortoise and the Hare “All is flux,” said the tortoise, who fancied himself a philosopher. “Here I stroll one day in the brown light of February, to my destination which will have changed already when I do arrive, and the dead trees will again be green, and blossom. I will then leave, and…

“Throughout childhood we are led to believe that there is some ultimate feeling of grownup-ness—likely lurking somewhere behind our next milestone.” Gary Joshua Garrison searches for the elusive feeling of growth completed.

“One of our favorite activities is to compare genealogical lineage. Kinships are discovered and celebrated. Discussions of what might have happened in the gaps of our family records abound….Speculation is plentiful, but much remains unknown in many family trees.” Edward G. Gauthier on commemorating a 400-year-old cultural migration.