I had a slight meltdown in the supermarket Saturday. The plastic bottle recycling machine wasn’t working. (It rarely is.) But that’s not why I was upset. I took the bottles to the Courtesy Desk where I encountered a photograph on the front page of the Daily News that I had seen in a smaller version on the front page of The New York Times. Perhaps you’ve seen it. The picture, by Getty photographer John Moore, shows a 2-year-old Honduran child crying at the border as her mother, attempting to cross illegally, is searched.
I’m not a particularly maternal woman. And, of all the arts I’ve covered, photography is hardly my favorite. I hate the way people act around photos, always posing even when they’re being “natural.” But the power of photography to move instantly is undeniable. Something about that photo shook me to my core and, as I held it up in outrage to the young woman at the Courtesy Desk, I found myself choking up. …
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Read MoreHow bad have things gotten?
So bad that people are now feeling sorry for Jeff Sessions.
The attorney general is the new President Donald J. Trump whipping boy. If only Sesh hadn’t recused himself from the Russia investigation, Trumpet wouldn’t be in the fix he’s in – so the twisted thinking of the president goes. In the world of the narcissist, the context has to keep changing to ensure that the narcissist is always right. Trump’s feeling the heat of Russkiegate but can’t blame himself for it and so has to find a vehicle, and a diversion, for his anger. Thus, Sessions is suddenly no good. I’m no fan of his, but how was he supposed to know when he recused himself that the Trump Administration would be investigated for its Russian ties? ...
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Read MoreA shout-out to Frank Bruni of The New York Times for a truly terrific column about President Donald J. Trump and Vladimir Putin and the bromance of the century (although French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau may yet give them a run for their money).
Brilliant though the column is in comparing Pump (Putin-Trump) to the great love stories (“Romeo and Juliet,” “Casablanca”), Bruni missed one, “Brokeback Mountain.” When the haunting movie of Annie Proulx’s sparely beautiful story came out in 2005, much was made of the gay love story. ...
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Read MoreIt was my favorite British prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, who said that “there are no permanent friends or permanent enemies, only permanent interests.”
And that brings us to Donald Trump’s date with Mitt Romney at Jean-Georges, chaperoned by Reince Priebus.
Mittens is up for secretary of state, and the smart money says that Trumpet’s just toying with him as payback for Mittens calling him a fraud and a phony in a scathingly eloquent address during the campaign. ...
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Read MoreIn “Clinton’s Sick Days” – a column in today’s New York Times about Hillary Clinton’s failure to disclose she has pneumonia before getting sick at New York’s 9/11 ceremony – Frank Bruni writes: “Her self-protection is a perverse form of self-destruction.”
While I would agree that she is a controlled and controlling woman – the result of having an open, philandering husband, the lack of power for women and her own Scorpio nature – that’s not what’s at play here. Or rather all that is at play here.
Women are raised to care for others. The not-so-subtle message is keep calm, carry on and don’t make a big deal of your cancer, recent surgery, etc. Lives are depending on you. ...
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Read MoreAt first, it appeared as if Frank Bruni was pulling our collective leg. And, it turns out, he was.
The New York Times columnist, a critique of the college admissions process, has contributed an offbeat, satirical piece sending up Stanford University’s snooty admissions standards – about only five percent of applicants get in – as well as those schools that might dumb down to meet students “where they live.”
I had to laugh, because in both my debut novel “Water Music” and my forthcoming book “The Penalty for Holding” – part of my series “The Games Men Play” – two of the main characters attended Stanford. I thought it was a bit of a stretch at first since they’re athletes. ...
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