SOLVING A PICTORIAL MYSTERY Not all mysteries involve crimes. The painting below, called “The Linder Gallery”, attracted the attention of Michael John Gorman, curator of Trinity College’s Science Gallery in Dublin. He has written a book on it and created a website exploring it that you may peruse here. He provides a cursory explanation of […]

AGAINST THE GRAIN by James Lincoln Warren I live in one of the strangest places on earth. In L.A., appearance is everything. I often wonder how living in Los Angeles falsely colors my perception of the rest of the world—inhabiting a city famous for glitz and glamor as well as for extremely localized urban discord […]

Friday night, I got a phone call from Leigh telling me that his computer had self-destructed and that he didn’t think he’d be able to repair it or obtain a new one in time for his column today. Now, one of the things about Star Trek that always bothered me was that silly self-destruct sequence […]