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Articles by Anne Bernays
Adam Theater Archives
Posted inCommunity The playwright and director of Adam Theater took a big leap this year, giving up a job teaching at Harvard to focus on bringing plays to kids. A stronger Cambridge Day Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day. We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible. Please consider a recurring contribution.
Performing Arts Archives
Posted inArts + Culture Newly crowned for “Outstanding New Script, playwright discusses how his work helps him make sense of the world. Posted inArts + Culture, Performing Arts Posted inArts + Culture, Performing Arts A stronger Cambridge Day Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day. We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible. Please consider a recurring contribution.
Why We Read Fiction
By Anne Bernays We seem to have a deep-seated impulse to categorize cultural objects like music and books of fiction. In the 1950s, books were classified as highbrow, middlebrow, and low brow, as if these categories signaled something you must know before buying or borrowing a book. Somewhat later the dazzling poet Ed Sissman split reading into “good bad books and bad good books.” The good bad books pulled you along with speed and flourishes.
Why We Read Novels
By Anne Bernays We seem to have a deep-seated impulse to categorize cultural objects like music and books of fiction. In the 1950s, books were classified as highbrow, middlebrow, and low brow, as if these categories signaled something you must know before buying or borrowing a book. Somewhat later the dazzling poet Ed Sissman split reading into “good bad books and bad good books.” The good bad books pulled you along with speed and flourishes.
Art Archives
Posted inArt The Baldwin arts center organized shows regularly before the pandemic. Irish watercolors marks an intent to do so again. Posted inArt Posted inArt Posted inBehold Posted inBehold Posted inBehold Posted inBehold Posted inArt Posted inBehold A stronger Cambridge Day Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day. We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible. Please consider a recurring contribution.
Flawed 'Library Lion' still worth checking out
Mr. McBee (Robert Saoud), far left, is a standout in ‘Library Lion.’ Adam Theater’s mission is essentially to present plays for an audience of second graders, that is, seven-year-olds. A large order. This past weekend the Cambridge theater company started the new run of “Library Lion,” a “play with music” adapted from a book of the same name. The show on Sunday had an even younger audience, mostly children still needing to hold on to mom’s hand — most of them were probably around four years old.
Movie Review: And They Eat Flowers
By Anne Bernays In one respect “Monsoon Wedding,” directed by Mira Nair, a movie that came out almost twenty-five years ago, is a typical BollyWood production, including , among other things, a strong romantic current, dancing and singing like there’s no tomorrow, resident dangers, heightened emotional behavior and temperament, and background music night and day.
Gorey's "Gloomy Gallery" a tricky treat
Mr. Edward Gorey, as you will discover when you visit “The Gloomy Gallery,” an exhibition of his work at Harvard’s venerable Houghton Library, was far more in touch with his unconscious than most of us are. Death, terror, unnamable creatures, a gothic-type aura of the strange and the dangerous permeates the atmosphere of one large, dimly lit and itself somewhat intimidating room. By any standard it’s a small exhibit: four display cases and some items on one wall.
My Market Basket, the grocery store inspiring cultish loyalty among shoppers and employees
Shortly After World War II, the grocery store – a cramped shop in which the man behind the counter retrieved items for you, one by one – was replaced by the supermarket. These markets – average size 40,000 square feet – were equipped with metal carts on wheels, invisible speakers that played flavorless music and offered thousands of things to eat, clean and cook with, along with magazines of dubious worth and candy bars to tempt kids while their mothers stood in line waiting to pay.
Anne Bernays' favorites in Harvard Square and beyond
By the time you’re 94 not only have you outlived almost all your pals but you have, without the least effort on your part, become a dispenser of wisdom. Those of us who have lived as long as I have also know a little secret: Although we’re supposed to have achieved this wisdom, we know it’s a mistake – panic about finding the right words, disguised as sagacity. But I’m not complaining about the wisdom thing, because I’m just as ego-driven as my younger friends. So here goes.
Movie Review: “The Paper” - Michael Who?
By Anne Bernays Two of the films in this sleeper movies series feature Michael Keaton, one of the few actors who stop being themselves and turn into the part they’re playing. This suggests that Keaton has mastered the art of acting so thoroughly that, paradoxically, he’s almost never mentioned with the likes of Clooney, Pitt, Streep, Gosling, and others whose luster never seems to fade, handing out awards or receiving them with the grace of royalty doing us a favor.
Movie Review: “Office Space”
By Anne Bernays It’s hard to believe that almost twenty-five years have passed since this prescient movie appeared with an unknown in the male lead. This actor—Ron Livingston—turned out to have just the right kind of muted talent to bring his heretical character—Peter Gibbons—to life. (As a name aficionado, I notice that these two names have a lot in common, both being American and vaguely British).
Movie Review: “Mr. Mom”
By Anne Bernays My mother (b. 1892) published articles introducing the notion that women should receive a salary for “housework.” The problem as I saw it, was who would sign the checks? The U.S. government? The husband? My mother also believed that women, not men, should design kitchens, since they spent by far the most time there and thus understood the physics of dishwashing and sautéing. She never lost her optimism. Secretly I thought she was half crackpot.
Movie Review: “Jane Eyre,” 1943
By Anne Bernays Ladies and gentlemen, today we’re going to visit a museum. Instead of paintings and sculpture, this museum houses hundreds of movies—all of them from long ago, when your grandparents paid twenty-five cents to watch two movies in one afternoon, before staggering out into the dark. We will focus on “Jane Eyre,” a movie made 80 years ago and staring two of the most celebrated actors of that time: Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine, bright stars in the celluloid galaxy.
Movie Review: “Is Love Enough, Sir?”
By Anne Bernays “Sometimes what doesn’t happen is more exciting than what does.” (anonymous) It’s hard to believe this movie was created by a large team of people, as it has the intensity and coherence of one artist, working alone. Deceptively small in scope (most of it takes place in one of several rooms in an expensive apartment in Mumbai) it manages to touch on most of the powerful emotions we all feel and have trouble processing.
INTRODUCTION: “Annie B’s Sleeper Movies”
ANNE BERNAYS is an author, journalist, and educator. She is also a movie aficionado and will be reviewing “Sleeper Movies” for ArtSpeak – movies that have gone unnoticed for one reason or another, but which have struck her as worth writing about. Look for new reviews every fortnight (or so). — Raymond Elman, ArtSpeak founding editor-in-chief BUT FIRST . . .
Annie B’s Sleeper Movies
EDITOR’S NOTE: ANNE BERNAYS is an author, journalist, and educator. She is also a movie aficionado and will be reviewing “Sleeper Movies” for ArtSpeak – movies that have gone unnoticed for one reason or another, but which have struck her as worth writing about. Look for new reviews every fortnight (or so). BUT FIRST . . .
Fragments | ArtSpeak
By Anne Bernays Because I had been an editor of discovery [1953-55], a magazine of original writing by William Styron, Norman Mailer, Anatole Broyard, etc,, had then worked for two publishers, and finally married a man who had actually published a book, I knew most of the prominent writers of the latter half of the 20th. century. Most were men.
Alien Stories: A Story & Interview with E.C. Osondu
Pangyrus is delighted to feature both a story by the esteemed author E.C. Osondu and a video interview that the author had with Pangyrus Senior Fiction Editor Anne Bernays and Associate Fiction Editor Indu Guzman. The story (“Memory Store”) is from E.C. Osondu’s Alien Stories (BOA Editions), which won the BOA Short Fiction Prize and publishes in May 2021. Mr. Osondu was born in Nigeria and came to America to be a fellow at Syracuse University where he earned his M.F.A. in 2007.
Croton Mammy | Inspicio
By Anne Bernays TESS, my wife Sally’s mother, came to live with us in our demure Miami Beach house about three years ago, before the freaking pandemic screwed up everybody’s lives. I’m sure you know that the perfect anagram for mother-in-law is “Hitler Woman.” But that’s not Tess and Me. She’s more like my mother than my own mother was and she actually told me the other day that I had a wicked sense of humor.
Croton Mammy | Inspicio
By Anne Bernays TESS, my wife Sally’s mother, came to live with us in our demure suburban house about three years ago, before the freaking pandemic screwed up everybody’s lives. I’m sure you know that the perfect anagram for mother-in-law is “Hitler Woman.” But that’s not Tess and Me. She’s more like my mother than my own mother was and she actually told me the other day that I had a wicked sense of humor.
New Dogs + Old Tricks
Teacher learns patience while students learn to write fiction. Here are two sentences: Dalloway said she would buy flowers herself. Dalloway said she would buy the flowers herself. The first sentence contains four facts, namely that Mrs. D. wasn’t poor, was or had been married, was talking to someone, and that she, not the other person, was the decider. And all this in a familiar but somewhat imperious tone. By the addition of one word “the”—the meaning of the second sentence is changed.
Killing Griffin | Inspicio
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Union Square is to Somerville what Harvard Square is to Cambridge, that is, its very heart. There all similarities end. But that’s not quite accurate: there’s no store that sells underwear in either place.
Killing Griffin | Inspicio
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” Union Square is to Somerville what Harvard Square is to Cambridge, that is, its very heart. There all similarities end. But that’s not quite accurate: there’s no store that sells underwear in either place.
Opinion | Being a woman means accumulating a lifetime of indignities
My mother, Doris Fleischman, was a feminist with regrets. I was determined to avoid her mistakes. Although, looking back, I have quite a few regrets of my own. In 1915, my mother talked her way into becoming the first female journalist to cover a boxing match for a major newspaper, the New York Tribune. When she married my father, Edward Bernays, in 1922, she was intent on remaining Miss Fleischman.
Gray-haired granny? An 85-year-old writer goes punk rock instead
For the ongoing series The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Gray-Haired Granny? An 85-Year-Old Writer Goes Punk Rock Instead
For the ongoing series, The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Gray-Haired Granny? An 85-Year-Old Writer Goes Punk Rock Instead
For the ongoing series, The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Gray-Haired Granny? An 85-Year-Old Writer Goes Punk Rock Instead
Anne Bernays leaves the Walter Lippmann House after teaching a fiction writing class for Nieman Foundation fellows at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Kayana Szymczak for NPR hide caption toggle caption Kayana Szymczak for NPR Anne Bernays leaves the Walter Lippmann House after teaching a fiction writing class for Nieman Foundation fellows at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Kayana Szymczak for NPR For the ongoing series The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging.
Gray-Haired Granny? An 85-Year-Old Writer Goes Punk Rock Instead
For the ongoing series, The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Gray-Haired Granny? An 85-Year-Old Writer Goes Punk Rock Instead
For the ongoing series, The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Gray-haired granny? An 85-year-old writer goes punk rock instead
For the ongoing series The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Gray-Haired Granny? An 85-Year-Old Writer Goes Punk Rock Instead
For the ongoing series, The Changing Lives of Women, Morning Edition is exploring aging. We asked 85-year-old novelist Anne Bernays to reflect on the role of a woman's appearance as she grows older. Along about the time I became a great-grandmother I dyed my white hair blue. Not a wussy "blue-rinse" blue, but eye-stabbing, punk-kid blue. At the time, I didn't do any soul-searching. I just thought, What the hell, why not? I was surprised by how this turn went over; everyone seemed to approve it.
Anne Bernays: Alone at 83. Now what?
When my sweet husband, Joe, died after a years-long assault by Parkinson’s disease, I found myself, at the age of 83, living alone for the first time. After our wedding, I had gone straight from my family’s townhouse on New York City’s Upper East Side to Joe’s tiny Midtown apartment. We were married for almost 60 years. After Joe died, I felt alternately numb and raw, as if the top layer of my skin had been peeled away, leaving me with excruciating pain. I prefer the numbness.
Yes, I miss my husband. But I’m also discovering the pleasures of living alone.
Yes, I miss my husband. But I’m also discovering the pleasures of living alone. - The Washington Post
Yes, I miss my husband. But I’m also discovering the pleasures of living alone.
When my sweet husband, Joe, died after a years-long assault by Parkinson’s disease, I found myself, at the age of 83, living alone for the first time. After our wedding, I had gone straight from my family’s townhouse on the Upper East Side to Joe’s tiny Midtown apartment. We were married for almost 60 years. After Joe died I felt, alternately, numb and raw, as if the top layer of my skin had been peeled away, leaving me with excruciating pain. I prefer the numbness.
Spring cleaning: 10 things to scrub away
With the onset of spring, The Washington Post asked 10 writers to nominate something we're better off without. Here are their picks. There may be no more euphemistically titled field of research than "inactivity physiology." Or: the never-before-needed study of how incredibly awful it is to sit on your keister all day.
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