One day at lunch, recently, a resident at the retirement center where I live was kind enough to compliment me on my play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast, which she’d seen the previous night.  Her companion hadn’t attended the performance but was quick to remind me that my small trium

I’ve written a good deal about the impact of robots and the electronic world on everyday life.  (Most recently Blogs 10/2/14,10/15/2/2/15)  Like Bill Gates, who helped develop and advance computer technology, I fail to understand why people aren’t more worried about where it is

Being poor in America isn’t for the faint of heart.  You need your wits about you because  you can’t afford a doctor if you get sick or a lawyer if you get scammed.  One of the biggest predators of the disadvantaged, along with pay day loan sharks, are for profit schools.  The

The Sun, a British newspaper, has laid to rest a long time tradition: the Page 3 girls.  For the last 45 years, every Monday, loyal fans turned to page 3 to be “greeted with a photo of a smiling, topless model.”  (“The News,” The Week, January 30, 2015 pg. 14.)  But no more

A  recent essay by Christopher Beha in Harper’s compares the literary criticism of Lionel Trilling (1905-75),  who reigned in the mid-twentieth century, with that of contemporary critic, James Wood. (1965 -)  Trilling judges a work based upon its the effect on the reader. Wood, h

Ralph Douthat of The New York Times raises a question worth considering.  Can we defend free speech without weakening it by carving out exceptions? (“Je Suis Charlie! Testing the limits of free speech, The Week, January 21,2015 pg. 16.)  Some prominent universities that purport t

A couple of weeks ago, a reader sent me am article from the Wall Street Journal about a first novel that became an overnight success, (“Preparation for the Next Life,” by Atticus Lish.  (Click here)  The story is one that would make any struggling writer salivate.  Tyrant, a sm

Since museums are run by people, it should come as no surprise that competition exists for the patronage of the ultra rich among these institutions.  At the moment, a war of sorts is going on between New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Until

“The Hard Sell,” is an amusing complaint by writer Adam Resnick about well-meaning friends.  (Town&Country, 2/15 pgs. 82-84.)  In his case, the friend was a woman who insisted he watch a foreign film called, Lovers of the Arctic Circle.  When she told him about the plot, it

The story didn’t make the major headlines of the day, but it caught my eye.  U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that in the interest of preserving civil liberties, federal law enforcement officials would no longer be allowed to seize property without evidence that a crime