This is a web site about writing, the art of the personal essay, humor, satire, irony, politics, religion, radio, cats, classical music, suburban life, philosophy, history, education, food, and whatever else grabs my attention in a given week. Sometimes it is posted from Long Island, New York, and sometimes from a village in the Languedoc in the South of France.

There is no agenda: not to improve the world (which is probably un-improvable), and still less to improve my readers, if any. With luck you will find some scraps of useful information and some thought-provoking entertainment in these pages. If we must use the ugly word “blog” then this is a blog about life and writing seen from the end of a long and enjoyable struggle with both.

Two features, listed on the left as ‘Categories,’ change regularly. The Featured Essay is chosen from almost a thousand radio essays and New York Times columns broadcast and published over the past twenty years. Writing Life began as an advice column, and then morphed into its present form as an ongoing record of the curious thoughts and experiences of a freelance writer. Both features have archives, and both invite comments.

Topics of the Week

Writing Life:“The Outsider” remembers a book by Colin Wilson that David read many years ago, and that still seems to explain many things about life and writing.

The Featured Essay,“Poetry in Motion” celebrates the remarkable displays of poetry on view in subways around the world.

Podcasts: If you like clicking on things you can click on the “Zune” icon below for a link to my podcasts.