Nadya Williams

Soviet Jews and Ukraine, things one writes in prison, compassionate conservatism, American utopias, and saying no to paganism

Many unicorns band together to form a blessing for your Saturday. In a nod to the conclusion of Current’s two-week forum on higher education, there are more recommendations on this topic than usual. But first, Homeric deodorant… *** Giving every […]

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the pumpkinification of autumn—this annual season, peculiar to the United States, that lasts precisely from midnight on September 1st to approximately sunset on Thanksgiving Day, and that requires pumpkin (or, at least, […]

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. I would like to tell here the tale of two colleges or universities—really, the tale of two types of college right now, but we are going to go […]

Recently, my eight-year-old son has become mildly obsessed with the nineteenth-century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham. Inspiring my son to write his own illustrated last will and testament, upon his death Bentham bequeathed his body to science, requesting that following a […]

Many unicorns in one civilized place form a blessing for your Saturday. Here is this week’s herd, corralled all together: *** Louise Perry’s latest for First Things, “We Are Repaganizing,” is the most important thing I read this week. A […]

‘Tis the season of pumpkin spice and everything nice. At midnight on September 1st, it happened again, just as it does every year in recent memory: the pumpkinification of autumn. The term is one, I should note, that existed already […]

Many geese form a gaggle, many rabbits form a fluffle, and a group of unicorns forms a blessing. As we gear up for the long weekend, here are this week’s unusual unicorn-worthy reads, coming to you on a Friday instead […]

This roundup concept was dubbed a unicorn at first, because it seemed to be a mythical beast, to be seen in the wild just once and never again. But here’s roundup #4, so perhaps it’s here to stay, at least […]

Tim Larsen offered an important bit of unicorn-related trivia in a comment last week: a group of unicorns is called a blessing. This is the third unicorn roundup of eclectic reads from this week. But is it a blessing? *** […]

Is it still a unicorn if seen twice? No matter. Here is an utterly subjective list of some quirky and interesting reads this week. *** We begin in the land of all things pink, as Current ran its two-day forum […]

There’s a challenge out there: you wear the same dress for one hundred days straight. The idea is to inspire creativity: look what you can do to make the same dress look different day after day (bonus: some who have […]

It’s a never-before-seen mythical beast: an eclectic links roundup of the week here at the Arena. This makes it a unicorn. Will I ever get organized enough on another Friday night to do this again? Unclear. But for this week […]