I don’t watch Dancing with the Stars, honest. But my wife does. The show’s eighth season ended Tuesday night with the naming of a new champion; this season’s winner was another “elite level” athlete. Of the eight champions crowned in the history of the show, three have been Olympic medalists; one was a retired NFL running back and another is a professional racecar driver.

Each season, just one or two of the 12 contestants are athletes. It seems to me, the …

I first saw her late one afternoon on a cold winter day during my freshman year of college. Our dorm room looked out on the building where the studio arts classes were held. Our window lined up with a window into one of the studios. She was two dimensional, on a canvas nearly five feet tall, painted only in shades of blue and white. I called her the Blue Nude. I was an eyewitness to her creation, hurrying back to …