[Read part 6 here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part VII By the fourth and fifth weeks of the Mellons, the scene at the National Gallery was almost absurd. People were lining up at nine in the morning for the two o’clock lecture; I met a woman who had driven down from [...]
[Read part 5 here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part VI “Okay, we’re going to learn a play,” he said the next Friday at Metrozoid practice. The boys were standing on Metrozoid Field in their Metrozoid shirts in a semicircle around him. He showed them the play he had in mind, tracing [...]
[Read part 4 here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part V That Sunday of the first Mellon lecture, Kirk walked to the lectern after an introduction. The room was sold out, and the overrflow had been sent to another lecture room. “Can I have the lights down, please,” he said, and I [...]
[Read part 3 here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part IV “I think I’m going to make the motivational speech,” I said to Luke as we walked over to Metrozoid Field the next Friday. I had been working on the motivational speech for several days. I didn’t see a role for myself [...]
[Read part 2 here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part III When I say that I began working harder, I can barely begin to explain what his idea of working harder meant: It was Bear Bryant’s idea of hard work circa 1955, it was General Patton’s idea of of being driven, only [...]
[Read part one here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part II A quarter century later, he was coming to the same field from the hospital. He was a handsome man, in a big-screen way, with the deep-set eyes and boyish smile and even the lumpy, interesting complexion of a Harrison Ford or [...]
A gift. If you haven’t read this personal essay by Adam Gopnik, that’s the best way I can describe it. My all-time favorite piece of writing. [note: this text is cross-posted courtesy of an original publication found here: http://www.ephblog.com/] LAST OF THE METROZOIDS A teacher’s final lessons. BY ADAM GOPNIK In the spring of 2003, [...]
You have to like a magazine read when it comes with the theme of ‘How to Feel Good.’ Here’s one article from that Esquire issue that I particularly liked. It reads a bit long in this format, but it’s worth it… read on! (and here’s to giving a try at saying something good–something real and [...]
Still making my way through Michael Chabon’s The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, which I started and carried with me during my Southeast Asia trip this summer. Beginning chapters started on outbound planes in too-tight aisle seat spaces, and others under mosquito-netting in a Malaysian guesthouse, beachside in Thailand and in hostel rooms here and there. Nice [...]
The Last of the Metrozoids (part 8)
[Read part 7 here] The Last of the Metrozoids by Adam Gopnik Part VIII That Friday, out on Metrozoid Field, Kirk divided the boys into two teams. “A team runs the play, and B team defends,” he said. “But they’ll know what we’re gonna do,” someone on the A team complained. “That’s okay. Most of [...]