In the early 1920s, famous pundit/critic H.L. Mencken wrote that the American republic would fall within a hundred years. The two reasons, Mencken wrote, would be ignorance and greed. This prediction might not have come true yet, but I for one think its lifespan might have been extended for a few years beyond Mencken’s 100 …
From the mid 1960s to the mid 1980s, Pete Rose was my favorite baseball player. I never thought he was the best player in the game and I rarely thought he was even the best player on his team. But I loved the way he played the game and I loved it when he said …
There are many dates we find significant. July 4th, 1776. December 7th, 1941. November 22nd, 1963. July 20th, 1969. September 11th, 2001. I doubt more than one in a hundred would remember the significance of November 9th, 1935. I didn’t know it myself — except for the year — until I looked it up. It …
Adolf, er, Donald wants to turn the police loose Read More »
If there is one reason I would purely love to be 39 years old again, it’s that I found it so easy to work. I’m not talking about my job. I was the college basketball writer for the Reno Gazette-Journal in northern Nevada and I traveled all over the country, from Chapel Hill, N.C., to …
I seem to spend so much time thinking about death lately. I was absolutely gobsmacked yesterday when I IMed an old friend to get an update on her health — she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer less than two months ago — and the reply came from her sister that she had died Saturday. Apparently …
Two stories in memory of my good friend Christine Read More »
Once in a while, news comes out of nowhere to shock you. That happened to me just 15 minutes or so. It isn’t that the news itself was so shocking, but the timing sure was. Less than two months ago, an old friend who I hadn’t seen in person for 50 years, messaged me on …
I have written many times on the subject of how much I admire my daughter Pauline. She has combined a wonderful career in the Foreign Service with a successful family life, difficult but hardly rare. But there is something she has been doing for years that I have never seen anyone else do. Before I …
The highlight of a movie actor’s life is winning an Academy Award. For most, it’s a one-time thing if they manage to win one at all. Some one-time winners are flukes, while others are older actors who finally win one near the end of their careers. Henry Fonda was in 126 movies and finally won …
I got an unpleasant little surprise a few minutes ago. For the last few weeks, Donald Trump has been lying about how tariffs against Chinese goods will raise trillions of dollars of Chinese money and pay for any government programs anyone could want. I would like to believe he doesn’t umderstand tariffs. That would at …
Eight inches of rain? Well, actually 7.9, but that is still one helluva lot of water coming down here in a 48-hour period. When my wife and I were thinking about moving east from California 15 years ago, she had some requirements as far as the climate. No hurricanes or tornados, no flooding and no …
