Academia is busily stirring another tempest in a tea pot as it attempts to assimilate technology into the teaching of humanities.  The new approach is called digital humanities and the first problem is how to define it.  At the moment the term includes everything from transcribing l

As my play nears production, my 4th novel goes nowhere while I search for an agent.  Getting a big-time agent is at the top of my bucket list — someone out of New York or Chicago or San Francisco.  I had a brush with one the other day, but she declined my manuscript because th

Those of us who stand at the bottom of their climb to literary success may be surprised to learn that established writers continue to face rejection once they’ve made it to the top. Having produced 4 novels, George Orwell found it nearly impossible to publish Animal Farm, for exampl

Last Friday, the nation celebrated its 238th birthday with the usual fanfare.  However battered our democracy may seem at times, it’s still a work in progress and looks to the future.  Generations upon generations of citizens have carried this political experiment forward, though

I read what seemed a snide comment in the news the other day.  Lec Walesa, former president of Poland, observed that the United States was declining as a world power.  Instead of being incensed, I cheered.  Since World War II, the United States has been defending liberal order in t

                        (Courtesy of redtri.com)

Most of my travels on the internet involve research for my writing, my blog in particular.  Women’s rights issues interest  me, so I often find myself reading material about the Middle East.  Knowing about big data as I do, I shouldn’t have been surprised when one day an ad for

By now, the NSA has disabused us of the notion that an individual has a right to personal privacy.  To be honest, most of us already give it away through blogs like mine or the comments we make on social networks.  The Web is so much a part of our lives that we sometimes forget we a

I’ve just finished an article in Harper’s about people who serve as life coaches. Though largely unschooled and uncredentialed, these folks make a living advising others on how to conduct their lives.  “Why didn’t I think of that?” I asked myself as I put the magazine aside

Last week I had coffee with a contemporary.  She’s been a journalist for many years and though she’s in her 70s, she keeps current on trends.  Even so, she’s uncertain about whether or not she can get comfortable in a world without personal privacy. “I’m not sure I regret