November 26, 2012 Writing for The New York Times’s Opinionator blog, John Meacham, Chattanooga native and author of the new biography, Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power, has some words of advice for President Obama during these thorny negotiations with Congress over the fiscal cliff. “Here is a modest proposal, one drawn from the presidency of another tall, cool, cerebral politician-writer,” Meacham writes. “Use the White House and the president’s personal company to attempt to weave attachments and increase a sense of common purpose in the capital.

November 21, 2012 As part of “Thanksgiving Abroad,” Bon Appétit’s series of tales from writers who have celebrated Thanksgiving in other lands, Rosecrans Baldwin reflects on his family’s attempt to enjoy a traditional turkey dinner in Venice.

November 19, 2012 In the November issue of Smithsonian magazine, Roy Blount Jr., a Vanderbilt graduate who has written about everything from the Marx Brothers’ Duck Soup to the streets of New Orleans, details the challenge of bringing Abraham Lincoln’s presidency to the big screen in Stephen Spielberg’s new film, Lincoln.

November 16, 2012 Novelist, essayist, physicist, MIT professor, and Memphis native Alan Lightman will make an appearance at the First Unitarian Church of Memphis on November 16th. His lecture topic, “The Physicist as Humanist: Science, Art, and Religion,” speaks to the complex interplay between science and metaphysics that are at the heart of Lightman’s most recent book, Mr g: A Novel about the Creation.

November 9, 2012 Sewanee graduate and author of the acclaimed essay collection Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan has written a new essay about his reluctant adventures in massage and other spa treatments, which ranged from a biodynamic facial/massage to the application of Tibetan singing bowls. On assignment from The New York Times Magazine, where he is a contributing writer, Sullivan addresses his discomfort with being touched by strangers, only to be surprised by his response to the bodywork.