BOOKS/ART/CULTURE
AMERICAN MOSAIC
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,…
Read MoreTOM PARKER, I OWE YOU
An ancient Jewish saying goes, “Acquire a teacher and make yourself a friend.” Tom Parker was both. Tom Trebitsch Parker died last month at 82. Trebitsch was the family name in Austria, changed after Tom’s parents fled Nazi persecution of Jews. Tom was an accomplished writer of fiction, including the novels “Small Business” and “Anna,…
Read MoreSHOULD WOMEN VOTE?
Last Sunday, we saw the Broadway road-show musical “Suffs” about the suffragist movement. The Tony Award®-winner made a powerful and entertaining case for the 19th Amendment, ratified on June 4, 1919. Yet some (many?) Christian nationalists oppose women’s right to vote. On October 9, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat interviewed Doug Wilson, pastor of…
Read MoreINSIDE MY NEW NOVEL “RIDE THE TYGER”
Reading a novel is easy. Harder: writing my tenth novel, “Ride the Tyger: The Lost, Unauthorized Oral Biography of Madison Hadder.” I started with a question: What leads someone to embrace the political far right and ignore reality? Witness Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, (R., Georgia) with “Jewish space lasers” and Trump former counselor Kellyanne Conway’s…
Read MorePLATO, COMICS AND COMPETING AMERICAN VISIONS
The Greek philosopher Plato and several comic-strip characters can tell us where America should be going. Plato wrote of numina and phenomena. Numina represent the ideal. Phenomena attempt to express the ideal in physical or other form. Plato used a chair as an example. The ideal chair can’t be seen. Real chairs, whatever their design, are attempts to…
Read MorePOLICE STATE USA
A favorite novel begins with a terrified protagonist: “The footsteps—thick-sole, steel-toe heavy, no pretense at stealth—approached our floor from the wrong direction. On a Monday morning, most people left their apartments for work, shlepped their still-sleepy way down the stairs as Indira had earlier. The stomping that terrified me came up from the lobby. I…
Read MoreBALANCE, COSMIC AND EARTHLY
A good friend is disturbed by photos of the cosmos. What is a human being in the vast universe? Rabbi Simcha Bunim (1765-1827) addressed this. He exclaimed that everyone should have two pockets. One should hold a note declaiming, The world was made for me. The other should hold a note stating, I am but dust and ashes. We’re motes…
Read MoreWHEN IS IT TIME TO STEP ASIDE?
Getting old poses challenges. One: defining old. A second: knowing when to step aside. This quandary is evident in the historical play The Lehman Trilogy, closing in San Francisco this Sunday. Written by the Italian playwright Stefano Massini and translated into English by Mirella Cheeseman, The Lehman Trilogy, directed by Sam Mendes, opened in 2018 at London’s National Theatre.…
Read MoreA LIBRARIAN’S LOWDOWN
Libraries and book publishing find themselves in cultural and political firestorms. Opinion pieces in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal offer interesting takes. Neither was written by a librarian, so for added context, I called my friend Les Kozerowitz, who retired 15 years ago as director of the Norwalk, Connecticut public library. First, the Times piece, “Red…
Read MoreCHRISTMAS AND “SEX EDUCATION”
A British TV dramedy about high-school teens involved in endless sex ultimately reveals a lot about the challenges Christmas often poses. Carolyn and I just finished season four (the final) of Netflix’s Sex Education, starring Gillian Anderson and a wonderful cast. Each season starts with copious sex but soon segues into the subject of relationships with…
Read MoreMY WIFE AT BURNING MAN
My 75-year-old wife Carolyn returned from her fourth Burning Man. Shocked? Here’s the full picture. Carolyn—Playa name DramaQueen—loves the festival, which draws 60,000–70,000 people to the desert three hours north of Reno. She first went in 2018. She’d known about Burning Man since its early days at San Francisco’s Baker Beach. “Also, I’d been a…
Read MoreTWO FAREWELLS
Last Sunday, Carolyn and I bid two farewells. In only one case had someone died. That someone was Tina Turner, who died last May. We attended Tina: The Tina Turner Musical at the Golden Gate Theater. It provided an opportunity to say goodbye to a woman whose music, and pluck, topped the charts. Tina first opened in London’s…
Read MoreIOWA ’23, SOUTHIE ’74
Donald Trump was just indicted on four counts regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Yet he remains the heavy favorite for the Republican 2024 presidential nomination. A pollster and a novelist offer insights. On Tuesday, GOP pollster Frank Luntz told Dana Bash on CNN’s “Inside Politics” that conservative, faith-based Iowa voters “like Donald…
Read MoreMORE MANDALORIAN–JEWISH PARALLELS
Months ago, Disney+ hyped season 3 of the Star Wars-related “The Mandalorian.” A thousand people from 20 countries read my 2021 post, “The Mandalorian and the Jews.” Season 3’s Jewish connections were even stronger. “The Way” of the Mandalorians suggests Jewish law, Halacha—the way of going. Maimonides writes about the “way of the Lord” in his Mishneh Torah. The…
Read MoreMY APOLOGIES, TONY AWARDS
Last Sunday, Carolyn and I tuned in—late—to Broadway’s Tony Awards TV show. When the nominees for Best Play were announced, I was certain one show had no chance. Of the five nominees, Leopoldstadt, by Tom Stoppard, presented a multi-generational Jewish family’s experiences in Vienna from 1899 to 1955. These included discussing escape plans following Nazi Germany’s…
Read More