"I saw the inner flashes, gleaming silver, like stars being born at random down a rolling scroll of time. Something broke and something opened. I filled up like a new wineskin. I breathed an air like light; I saw light like water….When I see like this, I see truly."

This edition: Annie Dillard, Ruth Asawa, Frank Bruni, Jafar Pahani, Garrison Keillor.

“It was cold. Not chilly. Not brisk. Not merely nippy. But bone-chilling cold. Or at least a slap-your-face-if-you-walked-into-the-wind cold.”

Let it snow (NYC), Let it snow (Up North), Milwaukee Rep’s McNeal, the Rep’s new second space, Toni Morrison.

“It isn’t easy to revisit one of the lowlights of my academic career. Yet, hope springs eternal. A few weeks ago, I dug out my old copy of Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd, ancient annotations and all. This time, I would finish.”

Hardy revisited, Ralph Towner memories, The Bottom Line, Frankly Music, Jeremy Denk.

“I know that many of your colleagues at Apple are really pumped about the new “Liquid Glass” look and the way the day and time looms on my homescreen photo like a doomsday clock. But, really, I’m good.”

Updates? Ball of Fire, The Residence, Isiah Whitlock, Jr., Scarlatti.

“…stadiums are playing the Las Vegas game, piling up amenities and ramping up the “fan experience.” Forget your hot dogs and cheap beer. At SoFi Stadium suites offer craft cocktails, sushi and roast beef sliders carved tableside.”

What’s in a List, Critic’s Choices, Cheap Seats?, Tom Stoppard, Favorite Poems.