“The very rich are different from you and me.”  This quote from Scott Fitzgerald’s, The Great Gatsby I’ve used before, yet always find it revealing when I do. (Blog 4/19/13) This time it came to me after reading, “Unfriendly Skies,” by Peter Greenberg in February’s Town

As our Constitution was written in the age of lamplights and sailing ships, Jean-Phillipe Immarigeon, a Frenchman, proposes that we Americans rid ourselves of government gridlock by rewriting our revered document, recognizing that it was created centuries ago by men who wore wigs. (�

What’s a living wage? The president thinks $10.10 is the magic number. The governors of some states think it’s more. Some think it’s less. I’m not sure how our leaders come up with these figures but in my mind a living wage shouldn’t be a specific number. It should be a perc

For some time, I’ve been twisting my brain inside out, trying to appreciate trends in modern art. A recent article in Vanity Fair, suggests my struggles have been in vain. According to author A. A. Gill, what I need to understand about the new form of expression is that understandin

A friend called me on a Sunday, responding to a birthday message I’d sent. As friends do, we caught up on each other’s lives and then made suggestions about books to read and movies to see. I recommend the films, August: Osage County and Blue Jasmine, both of which are films with

If I could add another amendment to The United States Constitution it would read: Section I: Congress shall enact no laws that a person of average intelligence is unable to understand. Section II: Any administrative rules created to regulate, enforce and/or clarify said law shall be l

“How thrilling to let go of old-self images that no longer reflect the real me,” writes Lisa Schwarzbaum in her essay, “Age of Enlightenment.” (More, Feb. 2014, pg. 124) She’s describing her feelings as she disposes of clutter that once passed for mementos. Primary among the

To be a writer is to court two things: a) rejection and b) people who want to sell you promotion services. As sure as dead bodies attract blow flies, both encounters are inescapable.  Believe me, no one knows a sure way to shatter the glass barrier between wannabe authors and top sel

I have seen the future and it’s scary. Not only is NSA monitoring us but so are electronic gadgets. If we let them, they’ll control our lives, telling us it’s time for our valium, nagging us to exercise more or alerting us to some advertising special we might have missed. (“El

Writer Kathryn Schulz was prepared to hate Twitter and the other social networks her agent assured her she must use to promote her book, Being Wrong. But in the end, she fell in love with the “bird.” Being limited to 140 characters per entry, Twitter forced her to sharpen her word