Early on in Kory Stamper’s new book, “Word By Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries,” the author and lexicographer describes her life’s work and that of her fellow editors at Merriam-Webster in a way that is somehow both mundane and fascinating. It reads like the beginning of some strange, bookish version of a “Law & […]
Literature Interview
Posted inCulture
Sonja Livingston on discovery through memoir
Sonja Livingston’s “Queen of the Fall: A Memoir of Girls and Goddesses,” is this year’s selection for Writers & Books “If All of Rochester Reads the Same Book” city-wide reading challenge. City talked with the author mid-way through her reading tour, which continues through March 19. City: The essays in "Queen of the Fall" blend […]
Posted inCulture
Fools = gold
The archetype of the fool is a complicated one, but we can learn a thing or two about the value of clowns from Shakespeare and rodeos. And apparently, from Iceland. Jón Gnarr is an anarchist comedian, actor, and artist who served as mayor of Reykjavík, the capital of Iceland. His forearm tattoos — Reykjavík’s coat […]
