A PARABLE OF PROPORTIONALITY
APPARENTLY WE LIVE in times when ideology trumps logic. In particular, there is no logic in the proposed demise of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for … Continue reading
PRESIDENTIAL INTELLECT
THE U.S. PRESIDENCY has been blessed, from time to time, with those of considerable intellect. Thomas Jefferson, for example, was a polymath and student of Euclid; natural philosopher and oenophile; … Continue reading
HOW WE LISTEN TO MUSIC
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, a local newspaper, publishes well-executed infographics of one thing and another. A recent topic struck a note close to my heart: The way we listen to … Continue reading
MIGHT HE BE CHANNELING JAMES JOYCE??
I CONFESS THAT I don’t understand either one, but I believe there’s an argument that Donald Trump has been channeling James Joyce. In particular, consider this Irish author’s masterpiece, Ulysses. … Continue reading
ART DECO, THE MET, THE POLISH BRIGADE, TRUMP TOWER AND TRUTH
RECENT NEWS OF possible demise of the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting got me thinking about Bonwit Teller’s … Continue reading
CHEECH’S STASH
INVETERATE 17-YEAR-OLD that I am, I associate Cheech Marin with his stoner-hippie comedy partner Tommy Chong. And then in the 1990s he was Don Johnson’s partner in the Nash Bridges … Continue reading
PACIFIC OPERA PROJECT!
L’ELISIR D’AMORE, by Gaetano Donizetti, had its debut in Milan, Italy, in 1832. Yet this comedy of phoniness promoted by a charlatan of the highest order remains a grand operatic … Continue reading
ONE BAD HOMBRE AND AN UNTOUCHABLE
I WAS thinking about bad hombres with foreign-sounding names, and Al Capone popped to mind. This is not the irrational neurologic activity it might seem: My mother and father, rest … Continue reading
MEN IN HIGH HEELS
RESEARCHING A recent item on the British workplace, Parliament and women forced to wear high heels, I stumbled (could it have been the heels?) on an interesting fact: The most … Continue reading