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A Painting with "Legs"
L ike the poems Emily Dickinson stored in her attic, or John Steinbeck’s repeatedly rejected early manuscripts, one of America’s best-known paintings was almost lost. American Gothic, Grant Wood’s ubiquitous vision of Midwestern farmers posing before …
Issue: May-June 2005
Money-Manager Transition
The University announced on January 11 that Jack R. Meyer, M.B.A. '69, president and chief executive officer of Harvard Management Company (HMC), would "conclude his service" sometime after the close of the fiscal year in June. Meyer has been at HMC's …
Issue: March-April 2005
Loker Lunch
Loker Commons, Harvard's new student-center-cum-food-court, spreads out in the reclaimed basement of Memorial Hall. Descend through the new brick and granite entry facing the Science Center and start taking in the motif: utilitarian gray beams, ceiling, …
Comic License
In the television show Master of None , two Asian-American friends treat their parents to dinner. Awkwardly, one announces the purpose of the meal: “We wanted to learn more about you and how you got here.” But when prompted to share a story, his father is …
Issue: July-August 2017
“The Value of Noticing”
“You have stood up and stood out,” President Drew Faust told the graduating seniors of 2017 in the opening frame of her May 23 Baccalaureate address. “The value of being noticed, especially on social media, has been a powerful force in your lives.” …
A Certain Slant of Light
Next fall , Houghton Library will publish a gift-book edition of some lesser-known lines by Emily Dickinson: her recipe for black cake, brief on the page but epic in scale. The librarians have twice undertaken making this dessert, which calls for, among …
Reforming International Finance
Addressing global crises —pandemics, financial collapses, climate change—requires global cooperation. But international institutions that were created to support geopolitical and economic stability, such as the International Monetary Fund and the World …
Issue: November-December 2023
“Old” Food Reduces Lifespan
What causes aging ? “Scientists have been thinking about this question for centuries,” says Harvard professor of medicine Vadim Gladyshev. It sounds almost simple, but in fact it’s thorny and complicated, and although several theories have emerged—that …
Harmonic Progression
There are so many places to begin with composer Robert Kyr. Like here: “I grew up in a family where the scars of war were very much with us,” he says. His father had served in the South Pacific in World War II; his uncle had lost a leg in the Italian …
Issue: March-April 2017
David Cutler: Can the U.S. Healthcare System Be Fixed?
No country in the world spends more on health care than the United States, or has less to show for it when compared to other wealthy nations. The U.S. spends nearly 50 percent more per capita than Switzerland, the second biggest spender among wealthy …
A Revised Gen Ed Debuts
After a years-long redesign , a reformed version of the College’s program in General Education launches this fall. The new Gen Ed intends to focus on “urgent problems and pressing questions”—to equip students for life outside of the classroom more …
Off the Shelf
Someone is going to be president; the winner might consult We Wanted Workers: Unraveling the Immigration Narrative , by George J. Borjas, Scrivner professor of economics and social policy (W.W. Norton, $26.95), to concur with or rebut his findings that …
Issue: November-December 2016
Lines of Friendship
Have you ever been to AWP?” Jean Valentine ’56, RI ’68, asks, almost out of the blue. “Oh, it’s wonderful!” This comes toward the end of an interview about the peaks and valleys of a literary career. Hers encompasses 13 books of poetry—the first, Dream …
Issue: November-December 2016
Super Drugs for Super Bugs
Last spring brought alarming reports of the first known case of a germ resistant to colistin, considered an antibiotic of last resort. The bug, a strain of E. coli , was found in a culture taken from a Pennsylvania woman with a urinary tract infection. …
Issue: November-December 2016
Open Roads and Dead Ends on a Native American Reservation
The Seventh Fire opens with an image of a road in the dark, pulling the audience into a harsh and little-seen world: the White Earth reservation in northern Minnesota. The documentary’s 71 minutes are largely confined to the town of Pine Point, and its …