Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • The American Scholar

    Critical Thinking

    Sep 01, 2021 2 minutes
    —ROBERT WILSON

    THE OTHER DAY I VISITED the home of a relative with whom, I have learned, the safest subject of conversation is sports. I asked him, in all innocence and naïveté, if he had been watching the Olympics. “You mean the Olympics?” he asked, an edge to as a mantra, alongside and I knew what was coming—a patronizing lecture on patriotism. In today’s topsy-turvy world, then, it has become to root for American athletes in international competition and to feel a bit misty, perhaps, when the winners drape themselves in our flag or the national anthem plays as they stand on the medals podium.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from The American Scholar

    The American Scholar1 min read
    Anniversaries
    The proliferation of streaming services has made network TV seem increasingly out-of-date. Only 75 years ago, however, it was just getting started. On January 11, 1949, Pittsburgh news station WDTV (today KDKA-TV) debuted locally on Channel 3 while a
    The American Scholar4 min read
    The Choice Is Ours
    In December 1866, mathematician Mary Boole wrote to Charles Darwin: Do you consider the holding of your Theory of Natural Selection, in its fullest & most unreserved sense, to be inconsistent,—I do not say with any particular scheme of Theological do
    The American Scholar4 min read
    Commonplace Book
    To Err Is Human; to Forgive, Supine —S. J. Perelman, Baby, It’s Cold Inside, 1970 You must know the bees have come early this year too: I see them visit aster, sweet Williams, bleeding hearts, and azalea blossoms hardy enough to not have crisped with

    Related