Michael Pollan and The Botany of Desire

Author Michael Pollan says: The tulip, by gratifying our desire for a certain kind of beauty, has gotten us to take it from its origins in Central Asia and disperse it around the world. Marijuana, by gratifying our desire to change consciousness, has gotten people to risk their lives, their freedom, in order to grow…

Taxing the Artist

The five months of furious short-story writing in 1923-24 had left him with a stake of $7,000. In Great Neck, that would only cover two and a half months of expenses. How could he stretch the $7,000 to gain the time to finish Gatsby? Earlier, as he was struggling to save, a friend wrote from…

Joie de vivre

I read this today in the Business Insider: A new survey from UBS has shown that the French continue to work the least amount of hours per year in the world. Once again, the French have blown away the competition. People work an average of 1,902 hours per year in the surveyed cities but they…