KABUL—In some ways, being an “international” in Kabul is one of the last great colonial adventures, complete with armed guards, drivers and the occasional attack.
But like that word “international”—no one says “expat” anymore—it’s a colonial adventure with a postmodern twist. “Internationals”—the term used by the U.N. and other non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) to describe staff Read More
Overlooked in the culture wars, a new phenomenon has been emerging: domesticity without family, or with family lite. I’m thinking of my friends who have elaborate, Martha Stewart–like (though not Martha-inspired) domestic situations, either without husbands, or children, or both. You could call it housewifery by choice.
It used to be that women married Read More
Overlooked in the culture wars, a new phenomenon has been emerging: domesticity without family, or with family lite. I’m thinking of my friends who have elaborate, Martha Stewart–like (though not Martha-inspired) domestic situations, either without husbands, or children, or both. You could call it housewifery by choice.
It used to be that women married for Read More
In 1959, in Torremolinos, on a break from a failing academic career and a year after the end of his second marriage, Timothy Leary had a sudden attack of a mysterious illness which gave him enormous blisters. On one night of suffering, as he described it in his 1968 autobiography High Priest under the title Read More
In 1959, in Torremolinos, on a break from a failing academic career and a year after the end of his second marriage, Timothy Leary had a sudden attack of a mysterious illness which gave him enormous blisters. On one night of suffering, as he described it in his 1968 autobiography High Priest under the title Read More
On my second trip to Afghanistan in 2002, I heard a lot of stories about the bad old days when the Taliban briefly controlled Mazar-i-Sharif. They were hated not only for imposing fundamentalist Islamic law, but also because they were a mixture of ethnic Pashtuns and Pakistanis come to a Persian-speaking, heavily Turkic area. One Read More
On my second trip to Afghanistan in 2002, I heard a lot of stories about the bad old days when the Taliban briefly controlled Mazar-i-Sharif. They were hated not only for imposing fundamentalist Islamic law, but also because they were a mixture of ethnic Pashtuns and Pakistanis come to a Persian-speaking, heavily Turkic area. One Read More
There is only one profession in Manhattan that is shyly professed, with downcast eyes. Those who practice it often issue a disclaimer: “Oh, me? You don’t want to know—I do something that’s not so interesting.”
They are not sex workers, or undertakers, or even criminals.
They are in finance. The higher their real or perceived Read More
There is only one profession in Manhattan that is shyly professed, with downcast eyes. Those who practice it often issue a disclaimer: “Oh, me? You don’t want to know—I do something that’s not so interesting.”
They are not sex workers, or undertakers, or even criminals.
They are in finance. The higher their real Read More
Holly Hughes once remarked, “I’m a man-hater, [but] I don’t hate men as much as a straight woman would.”
Ms. Hughes’ quip is a useful gloss on Self-Made Man, Norah Vincent’s brave, intelligent and endlessly problematic book about her 18 months living as a man—“Ned”—in anonymous parts of America. Ms. Vincent is a lesbian, and Read More
