A&E is now a deathtrap

Last Friday night, a young man walked into my A&E department, mid-hallucination, and started to lash out at a crowd of patients. After being wrestled to the ground by my specialist clinical colleagues and security staff, it didn’t take long …

A&E is now a deathtrap

Last Friday night, a young man walked into my A&E department, mid-hallucination, and started to lash out at a crowd of patients. After being wrestled to the ground by my specialist clinical colleagues and security staff, it didn’t take long …

Venezuela has reached its nadir

Yesterday, those Venezuelans who have not yet fled the country received positive proof that their democracy is dead. Exit polls in Sunday’s national election showed a resounding win for the opposition to socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro. But in today’s Venezuela, …

What Happened to American Civics?

Man in tricorn hat at Bicentennial celebration, July 1975; Diana Mara Henry, https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/muph051-s01a-i00035

My son’s school assigned a civics project for summer vacation. The project’s scope is expansive and spans from explaining the history and functions of the three branches …

The case for idleness

Oblomov, I imagine, looks like that stonily stoned chap in František Kupka’s The Yellow Scale. It’s a striking painting, a riot of yellows, with Kupka — for this is a self-portrait — staring defiantly at you, propped up in …