Any day is a bad day to encounter a scammer, but something about April and tax time seems to flush them to the surface like worms after a hard spring rain.   I was reminded of this when my phone rang yesterday.  Because of crank calls, I make it a habit to let my phone ring through

Does our criminal justice system disadvantage the poor and minorities?  Unquestionably, it does and now Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez , newly elected to Congress, thinks so, too.  Among the latest in her endless barrage of opinions is one that concerns actress Felicity Huffman.  The lat

Is Medicare for All affordable?  I have no idea. Apparently, neither do Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose argument in favor appears to be based on their misreading of a medical study.  Nonetheless, the goal is important and Obamacare has been a step in the right dir

Our President, Donald Trump, wants to close our southern border.  According to him. our country is full.  Tell that to the Dakotas, to the emptied towns in mid-America, and to the plains of Wyoming.  With an aging population approaching twice that of the younger one, the country is

FINDING YOUR ROOTS AND GETTING TANGLED IN THEM Today, so many ways exist to invade our privacy without our knowledge, it’s almost comic to think how freely we volunteer these intimate details ourselves.  Without batting an eye, we do it to find romance or search our family history.

In the 1960s, Peter Weiss stunned the world with his play, The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade. The story depicts a French asylum in 1808 in which the inmates re-enact 

I know a Latin woman who works as a cleaning lady in a healthcare facility. She has two children and a working husband.  Her goal is to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN), and she is a student at a private college.  When she told me she was in her final year of study and that s

The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, has reinstituted Shira law in his largely Muslim country.  Now, the likelihood a child could lose a hand for stealing an apple is real.  Sex without a marriage license will carry the death penalty as will homosexual behavior.  The weight of t

In pursuit of yesterday’s blog about growing old, I pause here not only to celebrate the 100th birthday of Beat Generation poet,  Lawrence Ferlinghetti, but also the publication of his new book, Little Boy: A Novel Unlike other writers in the pantheon of literary history, Ferlinghe

My mother, who recently turned 103, and I had an Indian Restaurant where we liked to have lunch.  The moment we stepped through the door, steam rising from the kitchen, beckoned with aromatic fingers.  Curry. Cumin.  Saffron. Too often, we were the shop’s only patrons. Not becaus