Looking Up (noun phrase):
(1) taking one's eyes off the ground/one's computer screen/one's navel and noticing one's surroundings
(2) going to a reference source to find something out
(3) getting better, improving, as in "Things are . . ."
(4) admiring, respecting, as in ". . . to someone older and wiser"
(5) an award-winning biweekly column that ranges from politics to parenting while trying to pay attention, find stuff out, be optimistic, and give credit where it's due.
The most current installment of Looking Up is always here.
Selected Archive:
2008 -- 2007 -- 2006 -- 2005 -- 2004
Sticking It to Us (June 12, 2008)
Weeding the Farm Bill (May 29, 2008)
Just Say Yes (May 15, 2008)
In Praise of the Right Tool (May 1, 2008)
Class Conflict (April 17, 2008)
Wall Street's Own Medicine (April 3, 2008)
Towel on Head! (March 20, 2008)
When faced with worldview-changing news, we're all toddlers at heart
What's Healthy? (March 6, 2008)
And why?
I'd Rather Know (Feb. 21, 2008)
Thoughts after taking a hard look at what global warming will mean for where I live
Real Economics (Jan. 24, 2008)
The problem with saying you're a social liberal and a fiscal conservative...
What You Don't Know (Dec. 27, 2007)
What an agnostic gets out of religious rituals
Empty Stockings (Dec. 13, 2007)
On opting out of the holiday gift exchange
How About We Really Protect the Children? (Nov. 29, 2007)
Local Loaves (Nov. 15, 2007)
Generation (Gap) Q (Oct. 18, 2007)
I'm Too Busy to Go by Car (Oct. 4, 2007)
Bad Gardener's Grace (Sept. 13, 2007)
Harry Potter and the Cultural Meme (Sept. 6, 2007)
Screaming Wolf (Aug. 9, 2007)
There's power in voices
The Africa Bandwagon (July 12, 2007)
What Part of [Deep Frown] Don't You Understand? (June 28, 2007)
Considering the idea that toddlers' attempts to set social boundaries should be respected
You Gotta Believe (June 14, 2007)
Albany has a pessimism problem
Mom, Can We Go Somewhere? (May 31, 2007)
How I discovered the most common warning I got about parenthood was a total lie
Theory Bites Back (May 17, 2007)
Corporate personhood isn't just for revolution wonks
The Unapologetic City (May 3, 2007)
If I were in grad school, this would be my thesis
Morality Where? (April 19, 2007)
In which I consider the possibility that right-wingers might not be miserable hypocrites after all
Let's Get This Right (April 5, 2007)
An opening salvo on Albany's comprehensive planning process
Cities in Black and White (March 22, 2007)
Another Kind of Urban Mortality (March 8, 2007)
In praise of ruins. . .
Marriage Isn't Enough (Feb. 22, 2007)
The Parent Track (Feb. 8, 2007)
Einstein for the People (Jan. 11, 2007)
Who owns the rights to e=mc2?
Keep Christ in Christmas (Dec. 28, 2006)
Class B for Buses (Dec. 14, 2006)
Giving Up "I Suck" (Nov. 30, 2006)
If the Pocket Fits, Stuff It (Nov. 16, 2006)
Fear of Halloween (Nov. 2, 2006)
We Heart Eliot (Oct. 19, 2006)
By Any Means (Oct. 5, 2006)
Submitted (in theory) as testimony for a hearing to expand Schenectady's adult business law
Danger! Hazard! Warning! (Sept. 7, 2006)
Talking back to the baby-product safety labels seared into my eyeballs
Which City Do You See? (Aug. 24, 2006)
Take Back the Night, and the Agenda (May 4, 2006)
Ride on the Sidewalk Yourself (April 20, 2006)
Representin' (April 6, 2006)
What happens when your constituents want something wrong?
It's a . . . Baby! (March 23, 2006)
How not knowing a fetus's gender causes half the adult population to collapse quivering
Speaking Our Language (March 9, 2006)
The tension between being a linguist and being a grammar geek
A Day Without Traffic Lights [April 3, 2007: Metroland's links to this issue are temporarily (we hope) down.] (Feb. 23, 2006)
Rights, Responsibilities, and Journalism (Feb. 9, 2006)
On the Mohammed cartoons
Happy December (Dec. 15, 2005)
No, Really. Question Authority (Dec. 1, 2005)
Crying Wolf Amid Real Disasters (Nov. 3, 2005)
The damage done by well-meaning exaggerations
Clearing the Dinner Plate (Oct. 6, 2005)
Katrina column 1 (Sept. 12, 2005) and Katrina column 2 (Sept. 22, 2005)
Many Shades of Bi (July 28, 2005)
Sticky City Abundance (July 14, 2005)
I'm a Conservative Too—Sometimes (June 16, 2005)
Caring About College Too Much? (June 2, 2005)
The Price of Fear (May 19, 2005)
I'm a short woman without a black belt in anything. And I walk alone at night.
The First Pill's Free (April 21, 2005)
Reforming Bankruptcy, One Screwed Family at a Time (April 7, 2005)
Slime Mold and Cities (Feb. 24, 2005)
Learning from the Freaks (i.e., Each Other) (Feb. 10, 2005)
Crimes of "Passion"? (Jan. 27, 2005)
Real-life consequences of glorifying jealousy
Got Your Goat? (Jan. 14, 2005)
What's really behind a city proposal to ban home butchering
Happy Mother's Day (Dec. 16, 2004) (For a little experiment in how a column and a poem on a similar topic can be very different from each other, check out "Pro-Choice Poem for Christmas" after reading this column. The poem came first, by several years.)
Save Our Plot Lines Coalition Formed (Oct. 7, 2004)
It's Just Not That Simple (Sept. 2, 2004)
Antiwar activists and the enemy within.
Can You Be a Little More Precise? (July 29, 2004)
Don't talk to me about "bad" neighborhoods.
Scarred Forever. Not. (July 15, 2004)
What are we protecting our children from, exactly?
(Note: despite the win mentioned in this column, First Amendment rights online have since taken serious blows in the name of "protecting children.")
Letting Off a Little Smoke (July 1, 2004)
Whiners who don't like smoking restrictions, beware
Don't Know Much About 20 Years Ago (June 17, 2004)
Wanted: Lessons in (Participatory) Democracy & Let's Imagine
A two-parter on community participation (May 20 & June 3, 2004)
My Secret Romance (April 8, 2004)
All about me and Google
No Activist Left Behind (March 25, 2004)
This one has a happy postscript–Camilo was acquitted!
Winged Messenger (March 11, 2004)
A bit of wildlife in the city
Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter (Feb. 26, 2004)
Why anti-same-sex marriage advocates are a bunch of perverts
