Essays that take a different look at social, political and scientific landmarks in history.
Reading Time: < 1 minute There are chilling similarities between 1942 and 2022, both in Europe and in the Pacific. Here, too. “I bet they’re asleep in New York. I bet they’re asleep all over America.”
Read More “Vive la démocratie!”Reading Time: 2 minutes Misquotes and quotes out of context are easy to spot and refute, but that’s rare. We look at examples used against Trump and Kamala Harris.
Read More Foul: Misquotes and contextReading Time: 2 minutes Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride” wasn’t written in the winter. It wasn’t even a Christmas song. But let the composer tell it in his own words.
Read More About that Sleigh Ride …Reading Time: 2 minutes A bit of serendipity brought us the opportunity to visit the home of composer Leroy Anderson, now open as a museum in Woodbury, Connecticut.
Read More A musical legacyReading Time: 2 minutes The slain civil rights leader’s legacy remains controversial, even today. But I admire his vision. We should concentrate on things that bring us together.
Read More Martin Luther King’s BirthdayReading Time: 2 minutes In a speech this week, President Biden said those who oppose the election bill are racists. Did he learn personal attacks from Donald Trump?
Read More Foul: Ad HominemReading Time: 2 minutes This Sunday is Religious Freedom Day. This is the story of one family’s two-year battle to worship as they pleased in colonial New Netherlands.
Read More A victory for religious libertyReading Time: 2 minutes Whatever happened to my promised “Living Here” collection? I try to explain. Meanwhile, I’m moving on to other projects, starting with a remake of this blog.
Read More ‘Living Here’ — Letting goReading Time: 4 minutes – REVIEW – The book’s most diverting chapter is a bit of fiction. In “The Adventure of the Empty Chair,” Sherlock Holmes unveils a secret of Spiritualism and foils a demonic plot.
Read More ‘Houdini and Spiritualism’Reading Time: 5 minutes -WRITING LIFE- Creating a cast for a one-act play about the medium who baffled Houdini seemed simple–until research showed there was more to the story.
Read More ‘Margery’ character studies