Month: October 2019
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The Plague of Ashdod, by Nicholas Poussin
The Plague of Ashdod, Poussin’s famous painting of 1630, is based on the Old Testament account of an epidemic affecting the Philistines after they had captured the Ark of the Covenant from the Israelites and moved it to their coastal city of Ashdod. According to Samuel 1:5, the Lord first destroyed the statue of their…
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Female Genital Mutilation: Cultural practices, historical moments, and medical issues
Alexandros ArgyriadisAgathi ArgyriadiLimassol, Cyprus Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as any procedure that involves partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.1 Female Genital Mutilation is a traditional practice, but is globally recognized as a violation…
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“Moonlight” and silence
Anne Jacobson Oak Park, Illinois, United States Woman at the Piano. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875/76. Art Institute of Chicago. At seventeen, I knew little about the limitations or losses that might cause a person to second-guess a vocation, deeply held belief, or identity. Perhaps those questions about the unknowable future inhabit the soul of a…
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Saul Bellow visits a dialysis unit
The Dean’s December, published in 1982, is a highly autobiographical book written by Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow.1 It is about the experiences of a university Dean and is divided into two episodes.2 The first takes place in Bucharest, where the Dean visits his mother-in-law, once a prominent but now politically disgraced party member lying…