: Zadie Smith bringing the wisdom as usual: shorturl.at/qxIS2
: So glad to see this call for “time to build” submissions from The New Atlantis. I have …
: Upon meeting another wide-eyed and middle-aged pedestrian on the sidewalk, early spring burst of …
: Teaching takes a lot of energy; it also keeps a person disciplined and specific, resistant to …
: Reading aloud David Chang’s memoir, Eat a Peach, to 14 yr old Malcolm. He enjoys the sweary …
: Curious if folks have honest thoughts about new Buckley doc, out now on PBS and an archival beast to …
: I never tire of design school detritus. World under construction!
: not that kind of constraint: sarahendren.com/2024/05/0…
: first goslings sighting along the River Charles!
: Just bought this print for my office from the Sr. Corita Kent center store: …
: “born of water”: sarahendren.com/2024/04/2…
: Parenting is Mostly Restraint, edition 361: Teenagers will silently process your advice to them, …
: Q: How do I do things (3 kids, no default parent, 2 ft jobs, big project-driven deadlines)? A: I …
: I love seeing this rationale and linked variations on “hello pages”: …
: dreaming Dreaming about a one year gap year program in great books, suitable as “core curriculum” prep for …
: First year of classes at Northeastern clocked! Giddy. My students were great this week. It’s only …
: My 18 yr old with Down syndrome bossing his younger sibs around on the family group chat. This is as …
: Is it a coincidence that we had a consult about Paying for College and then, on my run right after, …
: Springtime runner’s high thanks to The The’s “Giant.” First flowers!
: I just want to say: in keeping with the “limiting virtues” spirit of my latest …
: James Bridle consults LLMs for advice about building chairs, has mixed results: …
: Anyone here know students at St. Michael’s College at the U of Toronto? I’m intrigued on …
: On the city and the “limiting virtues”: cafe, church, library: open.substack.com/pub/sarah…
: My youngest is 14 today. 💔 Should I just openly tell my grad students that being a wife and mother …
: Yikes! Jordan Castro’s unsparing look at the ubiquity of “right?” as a form of …
: Good to see this reasoned testimony by Carter Snead to the senate, offering principles and …
: Our 15 yr old daughter reports that her friends laugh, in a friendly way, at the idea that we have …
: Iain McGilchrist citing Heschel on the tyranny and inadequacy of “thinghood” for …
: Helping STEM academics get clearer about ethical tech, by way of @ayjay’s generous concision …
: Still on McGilchrist over here — a good intro to his argument is in this lecture: …
: Got a fabricator making me a bunch of samples for semi-sculptural “canvases.” Finishing up a short …
: And reading McGilchrist, I suddenly see why Sufjan Stevens’s “Chicago” speaks to so many people: all …
: About 50 pages into McGilchrist, The Matter With Things. It’s good to be alive and in the awestruck …
: Holy wow the Know Your Enemy episode on Rene Girard with John Ganz. So good. Based on this series: …
: JRRT doesn’t need me to hype him, but man what a relief to give up on Dune (sorry, still …
: No train ride is too long in company of John Tavener’s sublime “Funeral Canticle.”
: I’m pleased to have an essay in the catalogue accompanying SFMOMA’s exhibition opening …
: My five year old niece: “Jesus is the son of God, and he glows in the dark.” You said it, kid.
: So much of parenting teenagers is choosing what *not to say. Sometimes all my brain cells are going …
: ok! You can now sign up for weekly digests of posts here. If I have friends out there using RSS for …
: A cathedral of motion pictures, a cathedral of learning, a cathedral of commerce. A “machine …
: On set this past weekend with an architect making one-armed tools in his wood shop. Film premieres …
: Rewatched The Crash Reel for my class on disability. It’s really, really well done — no simple …
: My architecture master’s students are even more astute and curious than I hoped. Now accepting …
: Today’s runner’s high courtesy of frigid weekday temps and a mid-morning outing, making it possible …
: My heart! One of my architecture grads in the writing class asked me to help him launch a blog as he …
: Also sorry to be a heretic, but Dune is…badly written? 13 year old son and I are 70 pages in and I …
: Oof, got conned last night at a gas station in the most cynical way. I’ve lived in cities long …
: Attention folks who work with exceptionally curious undergrads: two-week workshop with Becca …
: Today in optimism: these many efforts supported by the Consistent Life Ethic Action Fund. …
: And speaking of my kids in high school, I am truly less certain than ever what to even wish for, …
: Trying to decide if it’s worth it to go to bat for more paper-based work in my kids’ public high …
: Topics schedule, formal and social, for Writing About The Built World. Seven grad students and me. …
: Spent this last evening of the year with my littlest nieces and nephew — chocolate fountain, dance …
: “My mind is still open to revision, thank God.” — Francis Spufford, naming that truly rare virtue, …
: “But if democratizing politics would go some way toward improving culture, the reverse does …
: Advance copy of Becca Rothfeld’s forthcoming essays ❤️❤️
: Soon I will tell you all the back story for the Stolen Bonsais. Tragic. But here is our older son’s …
: Finally got around to seeing The Sound of Metal. Highly, highly recommended.
: Buying my tree-loving husband a membership and subscription to the Arnold Arboretum’s magazine …
: Speaking of this tiny urban footprint: I’ve been walking the 75 minutes or so to office or studio …
: Subway maps of downtown Boston reassure visitors: this place is tiny. You’re looking at the whole …
: And so glad to see my hero Danielle Allen weighing in on higher ed and the latest free speech …
: All synapses firing! Philip Bess on the sacred city: urbanism as spatial or anti-spatial, human …
: Moss really does grow everywhere.
: Foreboding, spare, approchable, organic, monumental: I wrote about learning to describe the built …
: something-something about the way my teenage daughter takes most selfies and friend photos with …
: quietude in the face of stranger’s messes: sarahendren.com/2023/12/0…
: So so glad to see my friend and likeminded thinker-writer-maker @mbattles here on micro.blog! …
: Two mentions in one week of Whit Stillman’s films in my feeds/podcasts. Time for a house …
: Three-hour seminar structure: favorite practices to break it up? Student-led presentations, guest …
: Blank slate. New studio space for the next three years. Thank you, City of Boston, for subsidizing …
: I realized that I have a public-facing dog: sarahendren.com/2023/11/2…
: So far just opting out completely from Substack Notes, but I see they’re more and more foregrounded …
: Curious if fellow profs have general wisdom about setting up a grad student as research assistant …
: “Sometimes, ‘This’ll do’ is experienced not so much as ‘settling,’ but …
: Finally saw Master and Commander. What terrific storytelling. Peter Weir is the real deal.
: I wrote about a radically imaginative partnership between artists and adults at a Scottish day …
: I loved talking to Krista Tippett, after having her regularly in my head for a couple decades. …
: Loyalty, the “limiting virtues,” and my newly discovered love for the voice memo mode of …
: A fellow academic said to me recently, just offhand: I’m a professor, so of course I like answering …
: Ursula LeGuin on the weight of liberty, and a road trip with kids that set her dreaming: …
: Rediscovered Blur’s Think Tank today. Like I forgot it ever existed, which is all but impossible in …
: One of our staples around the house is a berry compote—just frozen raspberries and frozen cherries …
: You’d think after all this time being encouraged, cajoled, now forced to use Outlook, I’d give in …
: I’m teaching Writing About the Built World next spring. I’d love to hear your favorites …
: Triumph of the diagnostic? (At least) two opposing narratives on disability and freedom. Trying to …
: One big engine of my work remains something like: Revenge-Love Songs from the “Physics for Poets” …
: A wood shop, an architect, the history of machines, and the art of making one-armed tools. I have a …
: Robertson Davies on charity as the last lesson: sarahendren.com/2023/10/3…
: And I get to hear the Faure Requiem again this coming All Souls Day. A good week.
: New Alice McDermott novel comes out tomorrow. Can’t wait.
: This q and a with David French on authoritarianism and the threat of Christian nationalism is so …
: We’re hiring at Northeastern: Design, Civic/Social Values, and Democracy. Open rank, broadly …
: Never been so glad to be paying $$ for newsletters and journalism, rather than get analysis on …
: After finishing Wendell Berry’s magisterial Jayber Crow, I started and stopped several novels before …
: Depressing as hell: even very smart folks with YouTube channels do that thumbnail treatment with …
: Curious if profs/teachers here do a module on “how to reasonably argue in seminar.” We can easily …
: “All sports involve some kind of disabling impediment, in the form of rules that restrict the …
: Two things I might have studied, if I hadn’t been such an incurable melancholy poet type: midwifery …
: New semester, new season: maybe you, like me, are trying out some new habits and patterns. Let me …
: In the ongoing discovery of new-to-me books while still reading aloud to my youngest, let me add …
: Maybe I missed wider discussion about it? But this piece by David Brooks on liberalism and assisted …
: Finally hit a good stride on fiction reading after a bunch of frustrations. This week Tessa …
: These two got a magical Maine cove experience — sea kayaking alongside several pods of porpoises. …
: We saw Mission Impossible last night and loved it — sent me back to when I saw the very first one on …
: I no longer think much about turning 50 — since the day has come and gone, months ago — but my inner …
: Derek Parfit on a consequential drive to Andalusia: sarahendren.com/2023/08/2… h/t …
: And here’s a companion translation.
: Miroslav Volf et al in the new book, “Life Worth Living”—what’s worth wanting? Like a tour through …
: I reviewed David Gissen’s The Architecture of Disability for this month’s Landscape …
: six verbs for accessible design (hint: nothing “universal”): …
: Shearing layers in a building, and teaching the big ideas in and via design. …
: Not so interested in Barbie, but loved going back through some old Gerwig interviews about Little …
: My mom on her first kayak trip at age 75. We had a blast in Olympic Natl Park this week and on …
: Planning a design class toward philosophy, not a philosophy of design: …
: Olympic National Park! Unbelievable.
: Same daughter reporting to the family chat on her other new July skills
: My daughter’s foray into printmaking this week. She has just the right mix of hand-eye acuity and …
: Currently obsessed with watermelon sprinkled with Stardust chili lime mix.
: Seeking readings and resources for my new course on design for the assisted human body: …
: Thinking about how one might organize an architecture/planning class around the themes of US …
: So pleased my teenagers can still get excited about building a fort on a summer day. How much …
: My social design collaboration called the Accessible Icon Project is now on view at the Cooper …
: I see my preferred podcast app, Stitcher, is folding later this summer. What other podcast services …
: [School superintendent] Marlon Styles did the opposite of what most leaders do in conflict: he asked …
: Possibly the most milestone-birthday-year cliche ever, but I have gone ahead and scheduled a call to …
: It’s going to take a lot of effort to create a countervailing narrative to a generous-seeming …
: Currently reading: Stephen Buoro’s The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, and Jay Baruch’s …
: This girl’s three years old today.
: Very glad to see Richard Reeves heading up a new institute on boys and men: …
: In a few weeks I’ll be around Port Angeles, WA with my mom for a much-anticipated walking trip …
: [She] once told me she did not publish a certain writer I admired because he wrote to have the last …
: SO glad to see @dorsalstream@mastodon.cloud here on MB; I recommend you follow what he’s up …
: I loved this profile of Molly Burhans, a Catholic GIS cartographer working to help the RCC …
: Also, I just realized why I had trouble initially with alt text: the tap on the thumbnail only works …
: Gonna have two of my teens work through this text this summer. Geared for younger kids, but I figure …
: I have so enjoyed the very protracted process of re-finding some friends I made from Twitter—mostly …
: The limits of “principlism” in medical ethics: autonomy, authority, and the search for …
: Trying again to use alt text here… no “done” button once you’ve added text, but gonna see if this …
: Got my colleague Deb Chachra’s book in hand. How Infrastructure Works. Coming this October! This is …
: Took our three teens to see Past Lives last night. Beautifully done! Worth the price of the theater.
: “Booze has a hand on everybody’s shoulder in this city.” sarahendren.com/2023/06/0…
: “The World Health Organization errs when it defines health as “a state of complete physical, …
: Currently reading: The Way of Medicine: Ethics and the Healing Profession (Curlin/Tollefsen). …
: We saw Bruce Cockburn at the Cabot in Beverly last night. Best kind of concert: small sit-down …
: Can folks here recommend some good reading on what unites sports that have balls of any kind? …
: My daughter had her last lacrosse team dinner last night. She’s in 9th grade, first time on a big …
: the tent and the estuary: sarahendren.com/2023/05/3…
: One lucky Mass MoCA visitor got to ride EJ Hill’s roller coaster for one—like a track of stretched …
: Today I learned the word “opusculum” from Hernan Diaz—something less than a novella …
: Just half the haul from U Chicago Press I got to pick for doing peer review. 🙌
: We got some shirts designed for our son’s Unified track team. Today was the state meet. If you have …
: Design is commitment + provisionality. sarahendren.substack.com/p/design-…
: I have an essay in Elizabeth Guffey’s new book, After Universal Design. On Carl Sagan, wonder …
: “Women, the ancient lie, the unattainable mystery, / the apple high on paradisal branches, / the …
: Everyone gets a double major: engineering and history. That’s it. That’s all we offer… …