A debate over rape in the armed forces is raging in the Senate, pitting one senator against another, and no, it’s not a man-versus-woman thing. Rather, it's two female senators.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) wants commanders to be able to sign off on any rape charges brought by the soldiers they lead. She says it will send a message to subordinates that the commanders are in control. But Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) favors an independent track that would leave the commanders out of the equation, fearing that they might either brush aside the charges or contribute to an established atmosphere of intimidation that would allow accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct to wither and die.
Read MoreIn a Nov. 17 New York Times’ story on the Zapruder film – part of the media’s extensive commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy – film critic A. O. Scott quotes novelist Don DeLillo’s observation about the role that different media, specifically film and television, played in capturing the fatal shootings of JFK and his assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
Read MoreWith the Czech Republic’s defeat of Serbia to retain the Davis Cup Nov. 17, the men’s tennis season draws to a close – except not really. There’s Abu Dhabi right after Christmas and then the Hopman Cup, which I had the pleasure of watching from my sickbed in Jakarta last New Year’s Eve. (Hey, not every woman can say she spent New Year’s Eve with Novak Djokovic, but there we were, so to speak – me, Nole and Pippa. No, not Middleton. My sister Jana’s Black Lab.)
Anyway, as I said to Pippa, who concurred, the Hopman Cup is like a party and not just ’cause it falls during Christmas week. There’s men’s singles, women’s singles and mixed doubles. Nole played mixed doubles with Ana Ivanovic, who looks like a young Princess Caroline. The men in my family were smitten.
Read MoreI had to laugh when I read about the controversy over Abdellatif Kechiche’s depiction of hot lesbian sex in Cannes Film Festival darling “Blue Is the Warmest Color.” Some feminists and lesbians protested, asking in effect, What does he know about female, particularly lesbian, sexuality? Isn’t his interest prurient?
I laughed, because I’ve often thought the same about men purporting to penetrate the workings of the female, uh, mind. Yet, couldn’t readers of my “Water Music” accuse me of the same thing? After all, what do I know about male sexuality and gay sex? Isn’t this just like Kechiche’s film?
Read MoreWelcome, dear readers, to a blog that I hope will be a provocative and fun commentary and complement to my novel “Water Music,” the first in a series on “The Games Men Play” – athletic, psychological, cultural and erotic. Due out 1/14/14, “Water Music” tells the story of four male athletes – rivals, friends and lovers – and how their shifting professional fortunes color their personal relationships. Here you’ll find more about the book and me and how you can order it from Greenleaf Book Group and Amazon.com.
You’ll also find a number of poems related to “Water Music” and the second novel in the series, “In This Place You Hold Me,” about a quarterback’s search for identity – sexual, racial and familial – in the beautiful, brutal world of the NFL. We’ve added the first chapter here to give you a taste of and for it.
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