THE NEW ALPHABET SOUP The playwright George Bernard Shaw is credited with the quote, “Youth is wasted on the young.” At 74, not only do I think the saying is witty, I believe it is true. If I could live with the vigor of my youth and still retain the wisdom of my age what a force

“THE LAST REFUGE OF THE INSOMINIAC IS A SENSE OF SUPERIORITY TO THE SLEEPING WORLD” – Leonard Cohen, song writer A friend of mine complained, recently, that as he neared the age of 60 he was suffering more and more from insomnia. His new habit was to wake up at 3 a.m. with slim

THOUGHTS ON WISCONSIN AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING In his book, “Norwegian Wood,” author Haruki Muramkami has his central character, Toru, makes the following observation about his life as a student:                           “By the second week

WHEN FIREFLIES BECOME ONE WITH THE STARS In one of the chapters of Haruki Murakami’s book, “Norwegian Wood,” the central character, Toru, is given a firefly in a jar. Eventually, he decides to release the insect and lifts the lid. The bug senses a change but doesn’t qu

I KNOW I’VE SAID THIS BEFORE BUT TO THOSE WHO WEREN’T LISTENING… I wrote earlier of my love for the works of Anton Chekhov (Blog: 3/2/2011), his plays in particular, where many of his characters are benign but passive to a degree that makes one want to scream, “Do something, a

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-lSLzYKVd2s%3Ffs%3D1%26hl%3Den_US (from “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Demonstrates the kind of personality traits needed to propel a book from keyboard to reader.) (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

THE ECCLESIASTES OF FREEDOM I confess it; I have taken sides with the rebels in Libya as most westerners would. I have no idea what ideology will prevail if they succeed as I understand there are a number of competing tribes in their culture. But I cannot remain indifferent when I see

PRINT ON DEMAND (POD) AND THE PECKING ORDER Wherever humans gather a pecking order will emerge. A few of us may be lucky enough to stand at the top of that order but most of us will land somewhere in the middle or at the bottom. This phenomenon is important to remember as we struggle

DON’T SEND IN THE CLONES, PLEASE Frankly, I’m tired of reading book reviews that compare yet another thriller to Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code.”  The truth is, there is only one Dan Brown and thank heaven for that because while his work is gripping it is also relentles

PAPER, PAPER EVERYWHERE AND NOT A STOP TO THINK Benjamin Braddock from the book and film “The Graduate” is an anti-hero who faces no ruthless enemy. His nemesis is summed up by the single word, “plastics” — a word which denotes not evil but a life lived at its mo