Tell me you are all reading the current column, called And the Pursuit of Happiness, that Maira Kalman (seen in the photo at the right) writes for the New York Times. I love the way her brain works, her heart works, her obsessions work. Here is the first column of the year (it began with Obama's inauguration); and here is the latest installment. It comes out at the beginning of each month, as did her previous column, The Principles of Uncertainty, which was a little more playful, I think. This time around, she's really looking at American heroes, movers and shakers - Ben Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Supreme Court justices....though the focus of her attention in a column about Ben Franklin drifts (the quality is quintessential Kalman) to odometers, daguerreotypes, rubber bands, Tesla, naps, jello molds, the safety pin, etc. Her discursive sensibility can't quite be explained - she has an artist's eye, the mind of a true flaneur, she is intellectually curious but not pretentious. What a wonderful combination. She's on my short list of "Read Everything This Person Writes."
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