It feels oddly personal to see a total lunar eclipse for the first time. Unlike during a solar eclipse, the sky does not darken. The midday birds are not suddenly quiet. Rather, the Moon merely dims, as though someone were lowering a celestial dial. When the Moon completely passes into Earth’s umbra, the thick, central region of our planet’s shadow, a total lunar eclipse takes place. This eclipse is democratic in contrast to a solar eclipse, which requires precise geography and careful eye protection. It is safe for anyone on Earth’s night side to look up and watch it happen.…
Author: Jack Ward
Federal agents wearing blue jackets bearing the “FBI” logo moved in and out of a modest house on a quiet residential block in San Pedro on Wednesday morning, not far from the salt air coming in from the harbor. They carried out cardboard boxes. There were no broken doors. No lights flashed, no voices were raised. There was simply a procedural serenity that, in some way, made the scene seem more serious. Alberto M. Carvalho, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the second-largest school system in the country, owns the house. The same morning, his downtown office…
Dow Jones futures were trading just below 50,000 by mid-morning in Chicago, where offices with views of LaSalle Street were filled with the hum of trading screens. About 49,600. A little higher. Not very dramatic. This is the type of move that appears composed on paper but is laden with hesitation. Investors had just processed Nvidia’s most recent earnings, which made headlines once again. Revenue has increased by over 70% annually. Profit is booming. The magnitude of the numbers was astounding, bordering on ridiculous. However, Dow futures hardly moved. Markets may have become insensitive to positive news, particularly when anticipations…
Recently, the Canadian dollar has been moving with a certain quiet confidence, lingering around 73 U.S. cents and even rising during periods of widespread weakness in the U.S. dollar. There is cautious optimism on trading desks in Toronto’s financial district, where the glow of Bloomberg terminals never truly goes out. However, optimism can be brittle in currency markets. Perhaps a large portion of the loonie’s recent strength speaks more about America than Canada. Expectations of rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and persistent worries about the amount of U.S. debt have put pressure on the dollar, which has been weak.…
Everything appears solid on paper. The work is stable. Payrolls are delivered on schedule. The apartment is cool in the summer and warm in the winter. There is a savings account, perhaps not very large, but sufficient to keep things from going out of control. At night, the refrigerator hums softly, filled with carefully and responsibly chosen groceries. By the majority of contemporary standards, stability has been attained. Still, there’s that steady, low hum. Not exactly sadness. Not a crisis. Sitting on the couch and staring at nothing in particular, there’s just a restless current flowing beneath the surface, posing…
In a bright café with exposed brick and the kind of mellow music that invites confessions, a thirtysomething woman once called her childhood “normal, honestly”. She said it the way people say, “The train was on time,” as though dependability is proof that nothing went wrong. After pausing and slowly rotating her paper cup while observing the lid flex beneath her thumb, she continued, “I don’t remember being comforted.” At any time. Do not yell. No bruising. Not a great story to share at parties. Just a space where something simple ought to have been, like a beautifully constructed home…
There is a certain type of dread that doesn’t appear dramatic at first glance. It appears to be an adult standing in a grocery aisle, focusing too intently on cereal boxes while practicing a line they have been practicing for months: “When you said that, it hurt.” The cart remains stationary. The buzzing of the fluorescent lights continues. The only thing that occurs is the body’s silent reminder that a truth spoken at the wrong moment can cost you the kind of love you’ve been taught to defend. These are the therapeutic discussions that adult children are hesitant to engage…
The phrase “Your parents did the best they could” is followed by a specific type of silence. Usually, it comes right after someone has just talked about a painful childhood memory. A recital that was missed. A door slammed. A mom too tired to pay attention. A father preoccupied with his job or with something more significant and anonymous. The purpose of the phrase is to ease the sharp edges of resentment. But it frequently has the opposite effect. Just as the conversation was starting to become honest, it ends. Both of these things could be true: they tried their…