I’ll be reading from my new historical thriller (JMS Books) at Westfair Communications Inc.’s first literary luncheon, Feb. 23 in White Plains, New York, and March 25 at the Greenburgh Public Library in Greenburgh, New York.
I pause here from my usual ruminating — and venting — to mention several upcoming appearances involving my new historical thriller “Riddle Me This” (JMS Books), part of “The Games Men Play” series, as well as my day job.
Read MoreA kindergarten in the village of Javolik, Serbia, built by the Novak Djokovic Foundation. Djokovic is active in social justice issues that might surprise the far right, which has adopted him in its anti-Covid vax mandate crusade. Photograph by
Ванилица.
Among those exulting in Novak Djokovic’s Australian Open triumph Sunday, Jan. 29, were members of the far right, who had adopted the world’s No. 1 male tennis player as the poster boy for their anti-Covid vaccine mandate crusade after the debacle last year in which he was deported from Australia for coming to the tournament unvaccinated, a moment that covered neither Australia nor Djokovic in glory.
Read MoreMerrick Garland being sworn in as U.S. attorney general in 2021.Does his appointment of a special counsel for the federal government’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump just make him look weak? Courtesy The United States Department of Justice.
Early in the Trump Administration, there was a store in Grand Central Terminal that sold novelty gift items, many of them critical of President Donald J. Trump. Some were innocuous enough (a troll doll). Others were too scatalogical for reportage. But one that elicited a chuckle was a take on the old paper dolls that showed pictures of Trump and BFF Vladimir Putin to which you could attach outrageous clothing. It was called “Bad Hombres,” after the phrase
Trump coined to characterize many of the Mexican immigrants thronging the U.S. southern border.
These have not been the best of times for the “bad hombres.” In Ukraine, Putin had to pull back from Kherson. When last seen, he was doing some soothing ribbon-cutting and the generals were managing the retrenchment/regrouping/retreat. On the same day, the Republicans turned in a less-than-stellar performance in the midterm election — setting many to blame Trump for pushing through his chosen election-denying candidates, most of whom went down to defeat, and to anoint Trump archrival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, as the new It Guy for the 2024 presidential race.
Putin and Trump are, however, not going anywhere.
Read MoreEugène Delacroix’s “Medea About to Murder Her Children” (1862), oil painting. Musée du Louvre. The ancient Greek myth — the subject of Luigi Cherubini’s “Medea” at The Metropolitan Opera — has also been misinterpreted, most recently in Maureen Dowd’s column on Vladimir Putin.
In his perceptive eulogy for Queen Elizabeth II, Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, observed: “People of loving service are rare in any walk of life. Leaders of loving service are still rarer.”
Ain’t that the truth. At the risk of sounding like the hammer always in search of a nail, I must nonetheless note once again that we are in an increasing crisis of leadership, from Vladimir Putin’s bungling attempts to conquer Ukraine, which would be laughable if they weren’t so horrific and dangerous, to the ham-fisted handling of Miami Dolphins’ quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s concussion. (The doctor/consultant who cleared him to play was fired. Really? The team’s front office and ownership should all be fired.
What does it mean to be a leader? it means you are a steward of everything and everyone in your care, a servant of others. It means you take responsibility, even when you are not directly involved in the action. Say what you want about QEII, put she saw herself as a steward, one who remained on the job till her dying day.
For most, however, it’s me, me, me all the time, and it doesn’t help that people don’t really understand this, because they have a limited understanding of culture.
Read MoreThe latest novel in my series “The Games Men Play,” a romantic historical thriller built around the opera “Turandot,” is due out from JMS Books Sept. 17.
A number of tough deadlines have prevented me recently from blogging and ashamed of it I am, too, as there have been so many juicy storylines on which to comment — the ridiculous ruling on former President Donald J. Trump’s request for a special master, which will undoubtedly be appealed by the Justice Department;
The less than Churchillian new British prime minister, Liz Truss;
The new nonbinary Joan of Arc play, which asks the question, Does it matter that Joan of Arc was a woman? (Of course it does, since it’s one of the reasons she was executed);
And the zigzag rise of Nick Kyrgios, one of a long line of idiosyncratic players (John McEnroe, having another moment, still; Andre Agassi and Novak Djokovic, who should just get the damn jab and be done with it already) in an idiosyncratic sport.
But I want to beg my readers indulgence for a moment as I announce the Sept. 17 publication of my latest novel, “Riddle Me This.”“Riddle Me This” (JMS Books, Sept. 17)….
Read MoreCereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post bequeathed Mar-a-Lago to the National Park Service in 1973 in the hope it would become the Winter White House — which is what it did during President Donald J. Trump’s White House occupancy.
History, Karl Marx observed, repeats itself — first as tragedy, then as farce. So it was fitting that on the 48th anniversary of President Richard M. Nixon’s Watergate-spurred resignation, Aug. 8, the Department of Justice should search former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida, for his alleged failure to return documents belonging to the National Archives.
Read MoreWhere it all began: Novak Djokovic becomes the No. 1-ranked male tennis player in the world in 2011, defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semifinals en route to the first of his seven Wimbledon titles. Photograph by Carine06.
I knew Novak Djokovic would win his seventh Wimbledon title. As a Djokovic fan, this one is all the sweeter given the strange, Nole year he’s having.
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