Black Lamb

December 2009 in Black Lamb

Volume 7, Number 12 — December 2009

December 1st, 2009

In the cover article of our December issue, New world, Gillian Wilce writes her last column as London Pride. In our page two feature, Facing facts, Dean Suess re-relegates himself, once an extremely accomplished person, to the ranks of the mediocre. According to Ian Archer, raising children involves A thousand deaths.

In Empty portfolio, Greg Roberts racks his brain to imagine a safe investment for the future. Toby Tompkins relates the third and final tale in his series of how he became an unwilling psychiatrist: The doctor in spite of himself. In The golem, Ed Goldberg likens right-wing demagoguery to the releasing of out-of-control malignant spirits. Elizabeth Fournier offers a strategy for coping with a boring date in Ape equals escape. In Go ask Alice, Elizabeth Hart tells the tale of weaning herself from constant medical intervention. Rod Ferrandino likens a corporate rah-rah meeting to a Torture chamber. In Bugger Emily Dickinson, Rosemary McLeish bewails the business of getting your poetry published. Dan Peterson recalls Beautiful girls from his high school days. We reprint three classic columns by our one-time language expert Joel Hess, one on English spelling, one on mondegreens (misheard words or phrases), and one on the Cherokee language. We welcome December birthday authors V.S. Pritchett and Henry Miller into our pantheon of Honorary Black Lambs. In Cut ’em off at the pass, bridge columnist Trixie Barkis offers a lovely example of a classic Scissors Coup. Advice columnist Millicent Marshall says if you don’t want to lose something by lending it out, Hang onto it. And Professor Avram Khan offers another challenging Black Lamb Word Puzzle.

Posted by: The Editors
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