Article Archive
Batter Up
The national pastime may be past its time. But those who think it’s boring need to think again.
Is Football on Its Deathbed?
Lawsuits over players’ brain injuries have some saying football is dead. In fact, it has dislodged baseball as the national pastime and will remain America’s passion for decades to come.
Lessons from a Feminist Paradise on Equal Pay Day
Sweden seems to be an egalitarian, feminist utopia. So why are American women ahead of their Swedish counterparts in breaking through the glass ceiling?
Expecting the Unexpecting
Jonathan Last’s recent book gives an incisive analysis of the plummeting U.S. birth rate's key economic effects.
Accelerated Learning Would Add Trillions of Dollars in Wealth
If students could complete their education a year faster, the many benefits would include increased personal wealth, decreased government spending, and more sustainable entitlement programs.
March Sanity
For a long while we have not been seeing college basketball at its best — the coaches are unpleasant and the most talented college-age players aren’t playing college ball. Still, I’ll be watching a goodly share of March Madness.
The Unnaturals
What to think when a player looks like a rocker, a Fiat mechanic, a cable guy, a terrorist — anything but the very competitive athlete he is.
Congratulations! You Have Arrived at the Greatest City on Earth
I have never failed to be moved by Grand Central’s incomparable (and irreplaceable) architectural grandeur.
The Artist Athlete
Jocks sometimes rise to genuine athletic distinction, but they are not artist athletes, who comprise a different, more elevated category altogether.
Is Christmas Possible?
This question has no easy answer. It is so difficult that more than reason is required in its service.
Reflections of a Casual Fan
I have but one love in sports and it is an unfortunate one. I love Northwestern football.
A Couch Potato at a Time of Transition
We’re living in an age of transition, and no one feels the sense of transition more strongly than a couch potato as one sports season slides into another.
Football’s Head Games: The Concussion Question
A snake has been let loose in the autumn Saturday and Sunday afternoon Edens of those couch potatoes among us who love to watch football.
The Long, Hot Summer
The grave yawns, the economy is in the tubes, the world generally is in peril, yet, upon realizing that there is a game tonight, my heart takes a small but genuine jump.
Anyone for Tennis?
Fifth-class player that I was, I seem to have retired from tennis, roughly half a century ago, just in time.
The Life and Death of Great American Cities
Roger Scruton on the possibility of renewal in urban America and why China’s urbanization is one of the great ecological disasters of our time.
Markets, Risk, and Fashion: The Hindenburg’s Smoking Lounge
The idea of a smoking lounge immediately under 7 million cubic feet of flammable gas should seem ludicrous. But it wasn’t.
Right in the Middle: The Midwest’s Growth Lessons for America
Middle America is a clear picture of how much the basics matter: Cost of living, job quality, schools, and opportunities to develop the right skills for the best jobs.
Titanic and the 1%
What’s striking in thinking about class differences in the age of Titanic is not the similarities to inequality in our own time, but the chasm.