THOUGHTS OF GUNS AND BOOKS A number of people on my Facebook page have been writing about various kinds of electronic devices. There’s been a discussion about e-readers and the merits of the some of the popular models. There’s been talk, too, of cell phones, smart phones, droids a

WE THE PEOPLE Having finished a number of obligations, I have allowed myself the pleasure of beginning a new novel, Haruki Murakami’s book “Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World.” I’ve read enough of his work to recognize his style — which is similar to

THOUGHTS OF OLD PHOTOGRAPHS AND OLD BOOKS Years ago when I moved from a large house into a small, one bedroom apartment, I was forced to make hard choices about which books to keep and which to consign to the used bookstore. I had to make a series of wrenching decisions but time has p

THE BLAME GAME Deborah Copaken Kogan is a married woman with children who made her living as a photojournalist covering hotspots around the globe. Millions of people read her reports over their morning coffee without considering the effort it took to bring them the news. She began her

REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST After rereading Eric Hoffer’s “The True Believer,” I decided to chose another book from my past and found a cheap paperback of Germaine Greer’s “The Female Eunuch” (1971). I wondered if her views that underpinned the women’s mov

Don’t know if you’re asking me but I go to Paris in my head a lot.  Haven’t been there physically in years

THE MYSTICAL, MAGICAL MIND Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the great English poet, is said to have awakened from an opium dream to begin scribbling his classic, “Kubla Kahn” (1797). He wrote from memory and with the frenetic speed of one receiving dictation from on high.   Unfortunatel

LISTENING WITH OUR HEARTS A recent article in “Vogue” magazine, “Keeping the Faith” (4/11) chronicles the story of a young journalist who discovered her profession could be used as a tool for social change. On assignment in Morocco, she encountered a warren of dark dwe

THE WAITING GAME John Milton closed his poem, “On His Blindness” with the now famous line: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”  Presumably, the words are meant to give hope to those who feel useless because of some impediment like blindness or paralysis or a crippling

THE LESSON OF A TRAP DOOR SPIDER I’m not the first to have recognized that certain characteristics are shared between insects and people. Henry David Thoreau in “Walden” recounts a struggle between an army of red and black ants which he compares to human conflicts that g