Blog
With the presidential election 11 days out, if you’re not going a little crazy, you’re not trying. Me? I rely on five ways to stay (somewhat) balanced. • My morning routine. After breakfast with the San Francisco Chronicle sports section, I walk a mile or more. Returning home, I enjoy coffee watching CNN and reading the rest…
Read More >>IDF troops killed Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’ architect of October 7, prompting me to ask, where do we go from here? I wish the shop had repaired my crystal ball, but a text broke the bad news. No more peeks into the future for me. That’s typical for someone at age 80, who learns that the…
Read More >>An economist at Tel Aviv University and an ancient king reveal much about the outcome of the war Israel is waging against Iran’s proxies, and so Iran itself. On Monday, Tom Friedman in The New York Times (“What I’m Thinking About on the First Anniversary of the War”) cited the economist Dan Ben-David of Tel…
Read More >>The new Jewish year, 5785, began Wednesday evening and presented me with a serious, if ongoing, challenge. At 80, I find myself increasingly lost in the fog of life. While my head remains clear, the older I get, the less certainty I cling to. In synagogue for Rosh Hashanah services, we prayed for peace. This…
Read More >>There’s a target on my back, though it doesn’t take the circular shape with a bullseye. It’s a six-pointed star—the Star of David. Who put it there? The former President of the United States. On September 19, Donald Trump told attendees at a campaign event titled “Fighting Antisemitism in America,” “I’m not going to call…
Read More >>The second assassination attempt on Donald Trump leaves me with a dilemma. Do I tamp down my anti-Trump remarks because they might lead some unbalanced person to violence? I well remember the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas. I was a sophomore at Alfred University. Also the 1968 murders of Martin Luther…
Read More >>Given candidates’ inherent dodging and weaving, I don’t see presidential debates as learning experiences—except for last Tuesday’s. Donald Trump enlightened a national TV audience about Haitian immigrants. “In Springfield [Ohio], they’re eating the dogs—the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating—they’re eating the pets of the people that live there and this…
Read More >>A hundred red firetrucks get you thinking. Six weeks ago, Carolyn and I started our return drive from Willow Creek in Humboldt County where we’d visited family. As we headed down route 299 to Arcata, a new shift of firefighters convoyed up to a fire near (but not threatening) our cousins’ summer home. Sometimes, we…
Read More >>Pole dancing in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics? In last Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, Marisa Ingemi wrote, “Pole organizations across the globe have begun a focused effort to get representation at the World Games and, eventually, the Olympics and Paralympics.” Seems that “poling” has left (well, not really) bars for gyms. If poling makes it—uniform…
Read More >>Kamala Harris’ pick for running mate—Tim Walz, governor of Minnesota—has raised new questions about Jews in America. In a recent New York Times article (“For Some Jewish Democrats, Heightened Worries About Anti-Semitism”), Jennifer Medina and Katie Glueck wrote, “For many American Jews, the prospect of Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania as a running mate for…
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