Blog
What do Robert Louis Stevenson, Milton Caniff, John Derek, Johnny Depp and Donald Trump have in common? You’re stumped? No prob. Here’s the skinny: Stevenson (1850–94) wrote “Treasure Island,” published in book form in 1883.The novel gave us one of fiction’s most unforgettable characters, the pirate Long John Silver. Milton Caniff (1907-88) was a cartoonist responsible for…
This past Fourth in Washington, wishing America “Happy birthday” was a sad affair. Love and respect for the nation and our Declaration of Independence are always called for. But the celebration was manhandled with overkill. The traditional fireworks staged in the nation’s capital fizzled in a misguided effort to make the Guinness Book of World Records with…
Two hundred and fifty years post-Declaration of Independence, is America’s glass half-full or half-empty? I’m no Pollyanna. I junked my rose-colored glasses and other items from the ’60s a long time ago. But last week, in “Flying With Resilience,” I wrote that air travel these days demands resilience—the ability to roll with the punches when…
What’s worse than one badly delayed flight to a far-off city? Two—within 48 hours. But these flights reinforced a valuable lesson. Two weeks ago, Carolyn and I flew to Dallas-Fort Worth International to connect to a flight to Waco, Texas. We’d attend her 60th high-school reunion. Two days later, we’d fly to New York. People…
June means a great deal to me as an individual, an American and a Jew. Sunday is the 123rd birthday of my father, Morris, in Warsaw, Poland. In February, 1906, age two-and-a-half, Dad came to America with my grandparents—Sam and Kaylah—along with Aunt Alice (older) and Aunt Etta (Younger). As half the team of Morris…
The 1962 New York Mets, 2026 San Francisco Giants and current White House administration share a lot in common. Incompetence. On May 28, 1957, the National League gave permission to the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants to leave Gotham for Los Angeles and San Francisco. I was a Yankees fan but felt the loss.…
The Getty Villa in Malibu and California State University Northridge offer a key message to America. A week ago, Carolyn and I—along with our sons Seth and Aaron, and son-in-law Jeremy—flew down to Los Angeles for our son Yosi’s graduation ceremony. Yosi completed the demanding bachelor’s coursework for CSUN’s music therapy program—hard to get into,…
A column by Nicholas Kristof in Monday’s New York Times hit me where it hurts. Kristof reported that “in wrenching interviews, Palestinians have recounted to me a pattern of widespread Israeli sexual violence against men, women and even children — by soldiers, settlers, interrogators in the Shin Bet internal security agency and, above all, prison guards.” Could…
A few days ago, a swastika was sprayed on the Rego Park Jewish Center, my childhood synagogue in Queens. Some people accept the old saw that “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words (or images) can never harm me.” Jews cannot. A university professor in Europe emailed about my post, “Artemis II and…
A political theory holds that the extreme left and extreme right draw close at the opposite ends of a horseshoe-style curve. Differing views between traditional left and right leave a wide, but respectful, ideological gap in the middle of that curve. The extremes narrow the gap because they share similar views about exercising power and…