THANKS, MR. AVAKIAN
ANOTHER THING for which I can be thankful is the life so richly lived by George Avakian, who died November 22, 2017, at age 98 in New York City. Over … Continue reading
SPEAK FOR YOURSELF, WHOMEVER YOU ARE
AN OLDER relative used to sit us down at holiday time and tell us family tales. He invariably prefaced them with, “Now listen carefully, because some of the things I’m … Continue reading
XI JINPING—MAKING CHINA GREAT AGAIN
“SPOKE TO President Xi of China to congratulate him on his extraordinary elevation.” This, from his American counterpart, Donald Trump, reacting to actions of the 2017 Communist Party Congress that … Continue reading
HOW LUIS BUÑUEL PREPARES ME FOR DONALD TRUMP
LUIS BUÑUEL, Spain-born Mexican filmmaker, was the father of cinematic Surrealism, a genre that attracted me during my Cleveland art-theatre 20s. And just two days ago, Daughter Suz and I … Continue reading
CELEBRATING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PART 2
BY THE 1870s, the Associated Press had expanded considerably from five New York City daily papers protecting themselves against a potential telegraph monopoly on news. Today, we pick up the … Continue reading
CELEBRATING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PART 1
DESPITE PRESIDENTIAL carping to the contrary, I trust the Associated Press, Reuters, and Bloomberg, and even a “failing” newspaper like The New York Times, or “Jeff Bezos’s” The Washington Post. … Continue reading
ON BEING RORSCHACHED AND OTHERWISE TESTED
IN THIRD Grade, I had a Rorschach. No, my mother didn’t have me tested. The Cleveland Board of Education did, as part of its innovative Major Work Class, a kinda … Continue reading
LAUGHING OUT LOUD
WHAT WITH one thing and another there days, I still laugh out loud now and then. This is more than just a chortle with schadenfreude, albeit internally, over some foible … Continue reading
DISCORD WITH THE DEMISE OF DRIVING
THE ENTIRE Sunday magazine of The New York Times, November 12, 2017, is devoted to “Life After Driving.” Perhaps this is no big deal for those living in the Big … Continue reading
DETSKOYE SELO (PARKS AND PALACES) LENINGRAD, 1934
IT MAY seem odd that in 1934 the Leningrad Soviet would have a Park and Palace Department. Indeed, it did and, what’s more, it published a tidy little guidebook in … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 