“What good is a book? Not much in the hands of people who do not think, and to be honest, most Americans do not even know how to think. Just consume.” — JOE BAGEANT If you’ve been following this blog and its earlier incarnations, you know how much I admire the late Joe Bageant, the …
Let me start by saying I have nothing against ’60s music. It was the soundtrack of my life from ages 10-20 and there were so many wonderful performers — individuals and groups — that had their heyday in that decade. Yeah, there was terrific music. But we really ought to understand that not everything was …
I was watching an English movie on my Zone 2 DVD player when something crossed my mind. The movie was “Not Only But Always,” a semi-biographical film about the comic partnership of Peter Cook and Dudley Moore. It got me to thinking about the peak of their career together, the period from 1964-68 that included …
COOK AND MOORE REACHED COMEDIC GREATNESS TOGETHER Read More »
Every once in a while, an old guy just has to be an old guy. There are two ways to complain. One is complaining that things aren’t the way they once were, and the other is whining about the way things have become now. They actually aren’t all that different except in subtle ways. I …
“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” If there is one of the Ten Commandments that has a certain level of ambiguity to it, it’s good old No. 3. The first two are fairly obvious. No other gods before me. No graven images. Those are easy, although you have …
Not all the shows I wind up enjoying end up flopping. “West Wing” and “Buffy” both lasted seven seasons and “Madam Secretary” six. “Smallville” gave me 10 full seasons of enjoyment. Then again, “Bay City Blues” broke my heart in 1983 when it was cancelled after just four episodes. “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” …
There are a lot of scummy jobs in the world, but there’s one that seems to me to have no redeeming qualities. Paparazzo. Or its plural, paparazzi. Let me start by clarifying one thing. When I saw paparazzo, I am not talking about legitimate news photographers. Photographs enhance news stories and often give people insight …
It was more than 38 years ago that Bernhard Goetz became briefly famous for all the wrong reasons. He was riding on a New York City subway when four African-American youths confronted him and asked him for money. Goetz pulled a gun out of his pocket and shot all four of the youths. For a …
When you write nearly 800 of these deals in less than three years, and when you’ve got memories going back nearly 70 years, it’s not always easy to avoid repeating repeating repeating myself. See what I mean? I certainly write about politics quite often. To be honest, it has gotten very tiring. Once was the …
There are so many indignities about getting old, but one of the ones that doesn’t often get mentioned is how difficult it is to maintain relationships. When you’re younger, you spend a great deal of time either at work or traveling to and from work. Your colleagues and the other people you come in contact …
