How 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 MoreI am a collector of “Hamlets.”
My first stage experience of Shakespeare’s best play occurred when I was 15 and saw the now-defunct American Shakespeare Festival’s production with Brian Bedford in the title role. It was striped tights, codpieces and an emphasis on Hamlet’s friendship with Horatio. I can still see Bedford, whom I would later interview about the part, being carried off the stage at the end – his head thrown back, his long, dark hair cascading. I loved it, though that may not have been my first “Hamlet” experience. ...
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Read MoreWith apologies to Mark Twain, reports of the Senate Health Care Bill’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.
It’s like one of those horror movies in which you think the evil guy is dead, but then a hand rises from the grave or you hear a chainsaw.
They’re ba-ack. Those rascally Republicans – told to mush by President Trumpet – are going to try again with a vote on repeal or replace or repeal and replace, something with an r. They have to do something, anything, because, let’s face it, they’ve done nothing. Apart from Neil Gorsuch and a partial travel ban, Trump’s come up short. ...
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Read MoreToday, July 20, marks the birth anniversary of Alexander the Great, who was born in 356 B.C. in Pella in what is northern Greece and conquered the Persian Empire in 331 B.C., ushering in the age of Hellenistic culture. Much has been written about him. I’ve written much about him – so much so that people are sick of hearing me talk about him.
Why does he haunt me?
I’m an amateur cultural historian. Before Alexander, culture flowed East to West. After Alexander, culture flowed West to East. And that tension between East and West, to which Alexander contributed, is still with us, particularly in the Middle East. We’re still living in Alexander’s world. American troops walk in his footsteps in Iraq and Afghanistan. ...
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Read MoreFor more than eight years, Republicans have tried to obliterate the influence of President Barack Obama and the singular domestic achievement that bears his name still – Obamacare.
That effort came to the end today as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell – who always looks as if he has a pencil stuck up his nose – admitted that he did not have the Republican votes to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Or, as he put it, he was not successful in repealing and replacing the failed Obamacare. ...
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Read MoreThursday, July 20 marks the anniversary of the birth of Alexander the Great in 356 B.C. in Pella, the capital of ancient Macedon, now Macedonia, a region in northern Greece.
Alexander has been an obsession of mine since childhood, when I read the legends associated with his conquests of the Persian Empire in 331 B.C. From Alexander, I learned how to navigate difficult parents and how to lead from the front – skills that would later serve me well in grappling with equally challenging bosses. Thanks to Alexander, I learned to work through pain, illness, grief. I figured if he could fight a battle with a punctured lung, I could gut life out. ...
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Read MoreThe latest issue of The Westchester Review is out and I’m pleased to announce it contains the short story that was the basis for “The Penalty for Holding” (Less Than Three Press), the new novel in my series “The Games Men Play.”
Actually, this is not entirely correct, perhaps because the odyssey of a story and a novel is a story in itself. “Jakarta Rain,” as the story is called, began life as the first chapter I wrote for “The Penalty for Holding,” which was then called “In This Place You Hold Me.” That in turn began as a poem about a quarterback meeting a rival – and lover – on the football field. ...
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