The Sidney Awards, Part I
By DAVID BROOKS
NYT
Every year, the Sidney Awards, named for the renowned philosopher Sidney Hook, go out to some of the best magazine essays of the year. Anybody interested in being a better person will click the links to these essays, and read attentively.
The first winner is Peter Hessler’s New Yorker article, “Dr. Don: The life of a small-town druggist.” It is a profile of a man named Don Colcord who lives in Nucla, Colo., and serves that community medically, spiritually, financially and beyond.
The article is a beautiful description of what it’s like to live in a small town, where everybody knows each other’s sins and virtues. As one resident puts it, “I like to play chess. I moved to a small town and nobody played chess there, but one guy challenged me to checkers. I always thought it was kind of a simple game, but I accepted. And he beat me nine or ten games in a row. That’s sort of like living in a small town. It’s a simple game, but it’s played at a higher level.”
Every year, thousands of New York City high-school students take a test hoping to get into the superelite Stuyvesant High School. This year, 569 Asian-Americans qualified, along with 179 whites, 13 Hispanics and 12 blacks. Results like that feed the stereotype that Asians are smart, hard-working, repressed and conformist.
(More here.)
NYT
Every year, the Sidney Awards, named for the renowned philosopher Sidney Hook, go out to some of the best magazine essays of the year. Anybody interested in being a better person will click the links to these essays, and read attentively.
The first winner is Peter Hessler’s New Yorker article, “Dr. Don: The life of a small-town druggist.” It is a profile of a man named Don Colcord who lives in Nucla, Colo., and serves that community medically, spiritually, financially and beyond.
The article is a beautiful description of what it’s like to live in a small town, where everybody knows each other’s sins and virtues. As one resident puts it, “I like to play chess. I moved to a small town and nobody played chess there, but one guy challenged me to checkers. I always thought it was kind of a simple game, but I accepted. And he beat me nine or ten games in a row. That’s sort of like living in a small town. It’s a simple game, but it’s played at a higher level.”
Every year, thousands of New York City high-school students take a test hoping to get into the superelite Stuyvesant High School. This year, 569 Asian-Americans qualified, along with 179 whites, 13 Hispanics and 12 blacks. Results like that feed the stereotype that Asians are smart, hard-working, repressed and conformist.
(More here.)
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