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Such grand theories! My governess, a stern young thing, took
great pains to instruct me in the ways of music and joy. I was an ugly child, prone to Goethe, loath to comb my hair. How I hated her milky skin and berry-bright cheeks, her long fingers stroking me awake from nightmares under the eiderdown. . . . The snow-crusted tangle of Tchaikovsky's beard grew up around the chair as we rocked. Our cuckoo was frozen at twelve. The dachshunds humped furiously. Far off from Papa's study I heard the sound of pages turning. What day is it that means the endless passing of flowers? By the firelight, a black dog pried its sleeping eye open, not wanting to give up the dark, not knowing what else to look for.
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The gender politics of Positive Psychology valorize the nuclear family and heterosexual monogamy. But few of the millions who encounter it through self-help books and therapy have any idea.
The passage of the administration’s signature IRA should be celebrated, but without explicit corporate guardrails it’s doomed.
As the war continues with no end in sight, the country’s ability to prevail at the front will depend on how badly the war damages life on the ground.
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