Roundtable

Opinions and analysis from Lapham’s Quarterly writers and editors.

August 19, 2025

October 30, 2013

Funny Bones

By Matthew Leib

Each generation faces death in its own way, and while the skeleton’s hollow-eyed gaze and mocking perma-smile have remained constant across time, humans have pulled a range of faces in response, ranging from the reverent to the ridiculous.

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August 07, 2023

Monumental Mistakes

2023:

Fitness instructor carves his girlfriend’s name into the Colosseum.

c. 1850:

Thompson of Sunderland makes his mark on Pompey’s pillar.

2023:

Writers on strike search for romance at the picket line.

c. 1945:

Young communists engage in party matchmaking.