Mariah Carey’s Christmas Miracle Twenty-five years after its original release, Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart this week. December 17, 2019 The Great Achievement of “Watchmen” Is in Showing How Black Americans Shape History The show reveals itself to be about black people who have the ability to mold history in ways their ancestors could not. December 13, 2019 Ralph Lauren’s American Dreams The designer and his family inhabit a world of ease and abundance, which never reveals the pains taken in its creation. December 5, 2019 The Service That Makes Shame a Productivity Hack Part social network and part virtual co-working space, Focusmate suggests that accountability is the most powerful motivator to get work done. December 2, 2019 The Powerful Perspective of “Queen & Slim” The film is a meditation on a system of justice that treats innocent people as outlaws. November 27, 2019 Should the Parthenon Marbles Be Returned to Greece? This past May, I was invited to the Hay Festival, in Wales, and my interlocutor put me on the spot by asking where I stood on the Elgin Marbles. November 22, 2019 How George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” Resonates in the England of 2019 Two hundred years after the author’s birth, her observations about the U.K. electoral system and the innate conservatism of provincial life have a new relevance. November 21, 2019 The Search for Pizzazz at the Impeachment Reality Show The Democrats keep on reciting facts, but is it wrong to fantasize that the way out is narrative? November 20, 2019 The Ordinary Brilliance of Big Thief After releasing four albums in three years, the band, which plays folkish indie rock and gives off a day-three-of-a-camping-trip vibe, has come into startling focus. November 18, 2019 The Firing of Don Cherry, Hockey’s Self-Appointed Gatekeeper Cherry was a pioneer in the identity politics of sports. The game was the game, and he expected you to conform to it. November 12, 2019
