From The Smart Set, Jerry DeNuccio on the metaphysics of cutting grass: A tidy lawn is only one reason to mow. Michael Johnson on the delightful Voltaire. From Vanity Fair, persuaded they held the key to great treasure and were targets of a Masonic plot, members of the aristocratic de Vedrines family turned over their lives, fortune, and ancestral chateau to a shadowy “grand master” — then came captivity and torture and a bizarre escape. Lauren Elkin reviews Proust's Overcoat by Lorenza Foschini. In his last book, The Bomb, the late, great historian and former bombardier Howard Zinn examines his troubling actions during WWII (and a look at the case against Howard Zinn). From Stanford Social Innovation Review, David La Piana on The Nonprofit Paradox: Why organizations are so often plagued by the very ills they aim to cure. From Thought Catalog, Nicole Rudick reviews Hannah Hoch's Picture Book. Of whales and aliens: Dorin Sagan on the search for intelligent life on Earth. The Christian religion has succeeded in introducing its point of view into the heart of the so-called “civil calendar” now in use in the greater part of the world — but just what is this point of view? You feel like an adult, going out to a restaurant and paying your own way — and then someone tells you how much you should tip. Conversations with literary websites: An interview with Chad W. Post, director of Three Percent. The story of pink: Photographer Lisa Kessler unpacks the many meanings of a color.
