The Impulse to Knock on a Door You Know Is Unlocked
There is a particular kind of hesitation that happens before a door you already know you can open. You raise
The Way a Smell Can Return You to a Room Before You Remember the Room
There is a particular kind of memory that doesn't announce itself. It arrives before the mind has a
The Compulsion to Taste Something You Already Know You Don't Like
There is a category of human behavior that resists easy explanation: the deliberate repetition of an unpleasant experience. Not by
The Habit of Leaving a Small Task Undone So There Is Always Something to Return To
There is a technique some writers use, attributed variously to Hemingway and to common sense: stop in the middle of
The Way Noise from Another Room Becomes a Kind of Company
There is a particular quality to sound that travels through walls. It loses its edges. A television becomes a murmur,
The Instinct to Match Someone's Pace Without Being Asked
There is something that happens in a good conversation — a subtle gear-shift, almost impossible to locate the moment it
The Compulsion to Read a Menu You Have Already Decided From
There is a moment, well-known and rarely examined, that happens in restaurants. You have already decided. The pasta, the
The Compulsion to Read a Menu You Have Already Decided From
There is a moment in most restaurant visits where the decision has already been made. You knew before you sat
The Habit of Saving Something Good for Later Until It's Too Late
There is a jar of preserved figs somewhere in someone's kitchen — pushed to the back of a shelf,
The Way We Treat the Last Page of a Notebook Differently From All the Others
There is something that happens to handwriting on the last page of a notebook. It gets neater. Or stranger. Or
