Columns

Capitol riots weren’t about race

Why should we be surprised that at a time when everything is supposed to be about race, from the skin color of certain newspaper editors forced to resign to whether we should capitalize the “B” in “Black,” the most disturbing and consequential attack on our civic body in decades ends up being all...

Laying blame for the Capitol riots where it belongs

You might have seen the photo by now. Of all the disturbing images of Wednesday’s insurrection, this one lingers. The photo, shot by Michael Robinson Chavez of the Washington Post, shows seven or so Trump supporters scaling the wall on the Senate side of the U.S. Capitol.

2021 can’t be any worse, can it?!

What a difference a terrible year makes. Last year at this time, my wife, Colleen the travel agent, and I were getting ready to take 40 of her clients on a 15-day cruise out of Dubai to India and back.

Celebrate Archie Bunker’s 50th anniversary!

I spent Monday nights in the fall of 1975 breathlessly watching my favorite TV show. And I do mean breathlessly.

Don’t use death as a political weapon

My father had terminal lung cancer.

Companion animals bringing more joy than ever

My new puppy entered the world on Christmas and he’s already bringing incredible joy into my family — just as many dogs, cats and other bundles of joy are doing for millions during these unusual times. I drove to Punxsutawney over the weekend to choose a Labrador puppy.

2020: A reluctant retrospect

Ok, let’s get the obvious out of the way. 2020 was the year of COVID-19, also known as corona (minus the lime), the plague, the super crud, or, as my dad calls it (and most other contagious illnesses), “the rooty-gootus.” But what else happened in 2020?

Longing for authenticity, even if its fake

The older I get, the more I am turning into my father. You see, the world makes less sense to me every day. My fellow man puzzles me more every day. I cite exhibit A: crappy stone walls. I know a woman who recently paid $10,000 to have a stone retaining wall built along her driveway.

Gender, politics, and equal protection under the law

Civil rights legislation always has its genesis in humanitarian principles: Protecting the weak, advocating for the voiceless, providing opportunities for the disenfranchised.

Is profanity in the ear of the beholder?

In case you (expletives deleted) missed the marketing campaign, on January 5 the noble public servants at Netflix will launch a six-episode series, “History of Swear Words,” hosted by actor Nicholas Cage.