THE PRISONER Each morning I turn on my computer to see what’s happened in the world while I’ve slept. Sometimes what I read is so horrifying or so preposterous, I’m uncertain whether or not I am awake or locked in a nightmare. I am shocked to read that someone has burned the Qur
SALAD DAYS ARE NOT ALWAYS GREEN Though we are half way into April, in my part of the world the weather can turn from chilly to warm and back again as fast as a sneeze. Much of the month has been rainy though a few warmer days have brought people flooding into the park where I walk. La
THOUGHTS ON THE RIOT OF SPRING — (and one for Lucy) Yesterday on the way to the park I was struck by a heartening sight. A small tree that had been stumped and left to look like a three foot pole several months prior had sprouted. From top to bottom its sturdy red-brown branches
LADY OF THE LAKE The question of how to deal with tyrants is a thorny one. Four responses are common. One reacts by taking up arms against the oppressors; anotfher offers no resistance and tries to exist as best one can; one becomes part of a passive resistance movement in the manner
NURTURING OR WITHERING? I wrote in an earlier blog post(blog: 3/30/2011) that the course of artistic history might have taken a different turn if women had put their art before maintaining their households. Recently, I read the story of one woman who took self sacrifice to an absu
SOMETIMES LUCK HAPPENS Taylor Stevens has a first novel out this month, “The Informationist” which is expected to be a block buster (“Vogue” Magazine, 3/2011). It’s a suspense novel about a woman who is able to extract vital information from everyone she meet
http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:378786 April 11, 2011 BLESSED ARE THE JOKERS A friend on Facebook shared a recent Jon Stewart comedy skit about some of the things the newly elected Republican Governors have been saying recently. Given my working class bac
“DO NOT SPEAK – UNLESS IT IMPROVES THE SILENCE” — Buddha A while ago I read an essay by a physiologist who wrote that the universe could not have come about through intelligent design. No one with an intellect, he argued, and certainly not God, would put the esopha
OLD WARRIORS NEVER DIE… Today I headed to the book section of the Dollar Store. The previous day, I’d paid too much for a second novel by Haruki Murakami (blog: 3/15/2011) and was shopping for bargains as a sort of “hair of the dog” remedy for my binge. After a few minutes of
LITTLE WOMEN In the 1994 screenplay for “Little Women,” Jo March makes the following observation about men and women: “I find it poor logic to say that because women are good, women should vote. Men do not vote because they are good; They vote because they’re mal