RESTORATION COMEDY—A PENDULUM SWING OF CROMWELL’S PROTECTORATE
HISTORY HAS a way of oscillating between extremes. One example is the English Restoration as a response to the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell following the 1649 regicide of Britain’s King … Continue reading
OLIVER CROMWELL—PURITAN, LORD PROTECTOR, AND A REAL PIECE OF WORK PART 2
YESTERDAY IN Part 1, we saw Oliver Cromwell involved with regicide, the British Rump Parliament, killing women and children in Ireland, and other Puritan sanctimony. Today’s Part 2 has a … Continue reading
OLIVER CROMWELL—PURITAN, LORD PROTECTOR, AND A REAL PIECE OF WORK PART 1
IT’S NOT OFTEN that I take a dislike to an historical figure. Hitler, yes. Mussolini, yes. But then I was born during the war years. However, having read about Oliver … Continue reading
ELLIS ISLAND TIDBITS
“HOW FAR WOULD you travel to find a better life? What if the journey took weeks under difficult conditions? If you answered, ‘Whatever it takes,’ you echo the feelings of … Continue reading
ON ACTORS, YOU’LL EXCUSE THE TERM
PITY THE POOR Thespians. Those of the acting profession have given us entertainment, comfort, even enlightenment. Yet, like Rodney Dangerfield used to say, they don’t get no respect. Here are … Continue reading
“POP” GOES THE EASEL
“FOR AS LONG AS there have been people putting art on a pedestal,” Jamie James writes, “there have been others, usually artists themselves, who have taken delight in pulling it … Continue reading
NO DEAL BREXIT AND THE AUTOMOBILE
GLOBALISM VERSUS NATIONALISM are concepts lurking in Brexit, Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. Brexit is based on a June 23, 2016, referendum in the United Kingdom, its outcome a … Continue reading
THE BORSCHT CIRCUIT, THE CHITLIN CIRCUIT, AND PHILOSOPHER SANTAYANA PART 2
YESTERDAY IN PART 1, we discussed the disturbing trend these days of increased hate crimes. We also learned of the historic Borscht Circuit in the Catskill Mountains of New York. … Continue reading
THE BORSCHT CIRCUIT, THE CHITLIN CIRCUIT, AND PHILOSOPHER SANTAYANA PART 1
“THOSE WHO CANNOT remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This oft-cited and occasionally misattributed quote from philosopher George Santayana is particularly relevant today in discussing several cultural phenomena: … Continue reading
TAKE HENNY YOUNGMAN… PLEASE
THESE DAYS, PERHAPS only those of a certain age remember standup comedian Henny Youngman. More’s the pity, because he was the master of rapid-fire humor, interspersed with a few bars … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 