10 September 2019 On the eve of 9/11, I offer a prayer to the Almighty for all who suffered and who suffer still because of evil and its accomplices. Any plaintive person can best be comforted by the truth which always sets free the heart in misery, the soul in anguish. The truth — the truths — of what was really going on during the past 20 years in the USA, in the UK, in France, in Western Europe — have all come home to roost. Fraud and deception were more costly for the pho

17 July 2019 Little Joe, the Big Pavelski, the Captain, the guy with the Doritos-Sunkissed-Beard. The names are many, but the most...

Summer 2019 It holds secrets all its own, no matter where the botanic creation thrives. The concept is the same, no matter where the...

May 2019 I was raised with a ton of etiquette. Manners were the strong suit of my mother. Morals is where she fell down, precipitously...

29 March 2019 DON’T GIVE UP THE SHIP! It has become nearly impossible for the will of civilized people in the grass-roots of a nation to...

February 2019 My literary research leads me in all sorts of directions, to all sorts of places, perhaps for all sorts of reasons....

Giving Thanks 2018 The United States of America began as the City Upon a Hill that Puritan John Winthrop described in his essay in 1630, a full decade after the Pilgrims founded Plymouth Colony in America in 1620. As Protestants, the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England, voyaging by that ship called The Mayflower across the Atlantic Ocean. Miraculously, they made it to shore. The tale of the Pilgrims and their Plimouth Plantation is all that anyone needs to know abo

Late September 2018 We live in times that feel instantaneous and yet the tempo of our lives is neither faster nor slower than it was for...

Autumn 2018 I begin this autumnal essay with a few divine quotes about the nature of friendship. “Friendship is a plant of slow growth...

Labor Day 2018 September Songs: Instrumental Gems As a singer, I can not easily avow that there are some songs that sound much better as...

August 2018 My Naked Feet: Where Have All the Good Shoes Gone? I have an Egyptian foot. I did not always know that I possess such a...

4 July 2018 The Liberty Bell first rang in America in 1753 in the tower of the State House of Pennsylvania. The bell’s got a crack in it,...

2018 Summer Sale What is it with the American need to label everything, including people? I perhaps defy categorization but it hasn’t...

Spring Showers 2018 At first blush, she has the touch of detail that typifies Dutch artists. The immaculately detailed domestic settings;...

April 2018 Recording Artists: The Choral Groups They did not have the swing or the swivel or the hair-sprayed sass of Girl Groups, but...

Easter April 2018 Last year, during autumn 2017, a friend commented to me that moving to a new house would really get my creative juices...

California Winter Solstice 2017 The New Normal has become people saying, “It’s the new normal.” They claim random events are the New...

Mid-December 2017 Last week, during the end of this month of December, 2017, I awoke with the strains in my head of the duet that Ginger...

November 2017 There are 6 Thin Men movies, the original The Thin Man and 5 sequels. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced these films from...

November 2017 Heaven knows I love this film. I’ve loved it since I first saw it as a child. I still marvel at the potent and yet adeptly...