Blog
Pharaoh never gets it. Even hail, locusts and darkness fail to move him to let the Israelites leave Egypt. It takes a tenth plague, the death of the firstborn males—his own son included—to prompt Pharaoh to recognize his wrongdoing. Which brings me to Lance Armstrong. How interesting that Armstrong’s long-awaited “confession” to Oprah Winfrey regarding…
I went to a funeral a week ago, although nobody died. Rather, Carolyn and I attended a showing of The Perks of Being a Wallflower at San Francisco’s Bridge Theater. It was the Bridge’s last day. I didn’t cry. But I will mourn. The Bridge’s death was no surprise. Landmark Theatres decided it could no…
At year’s end, the United States faces interesting questions. What if our economy really is improving? What if the naysayers are wrong about the President’s position on taxes and spending cuts? And what if Washington responds accordingly? I’m not wearing rose-colored glasses, but a level of optimism may be justified. Here’s why… First-time unemployment claims…
If a journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, that first step often is the most difficult. So we go nowhere. Witness the fiscal cliff and gun violence. Why? We fear the unknown leading us down a slippery slope. Fear of the slippery slope is ancient. Proverbs 2:12-15 warns against a series…
In George Orwell’s novel 1984, Big Brother, the symbol of tyranny, declares that “Black is white, and white is black.” This marks just one example of “doublethink,” which twists truth and falsehood. But doublespeak is more than fiction, as we learned in Gaza last week. On Saturday, Palestinians celebrated Hamas’ twenty-fifth anniversary marked by the…
When it comes to humor, there’s dry and there’s Sahara dry. A writer can craft a piece so tongue-in-cheek it flies over readers’ heads. I plead—maybe—guilty. Several readers thought “An Affront to Humanity” (November 23) concerned a real woman’s real experience on a San Francisco Muni bus. Nope. As I wrote in a postscript last…
Lately, I’d been tossing three items around in my head. They finally converged, reminding me of a lesson I learned on a ride at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Don’t lean back. You can’t stop the inevitable. Here’s what I mean. For starters, the world really has gotten smaller. My parents never traveled outside the United…
I was waiting for a bus the other morning when a woman I know slightly approached. A sling encased her left arm. “What happened?” I asked. She proceeded to tell me about an experience that left her confused—and me, as well. Two days earlier she took the bus home from work. Standing room only. A…