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The scandal du jour is how the gathering of tabloid gossip has escalated from eavesdropping on insider chitchat to outright espionage. In Britain, reporters from Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World are accused of trying to get the dirt on royals, politicians, and sports stars by bribing bodyguards and household staff, hacking phone lines, and […]
“The sun peers over the rim of the earth, casting its blaze across Bangkok. It rushes molten over the wrecked tower bones of the old Expansion and the gold-sheathed chedi of the city’s temples, engulfing them in light and heat. It ignites the sharp high roofs of the Grand Palace where the Child Queen lives […]
“Kindness. That can kill you here.” — Ed Harris as Mister Smith in The Way Back Reversible Errors (TV 2004) Strong cast, weak movie. To be fair, it’s not really a movie … it’s a TV miniseries. Because it was made for TV, Reversible Errors is full of “pause for commercial break” setups and an […]
A friend wrote the other day and asked me if I’d ever read anything by Stuart Archer Cohen. I fear for my friend’s mind, because just two years ago … on her recommendation … I read Cohen’s The Army of the Republic and sent her a copy of my brief review, which I’ll repost here: […]
Last week I noticed they’d moved several outdoor aircraft at the Pima Air & Space Museum, opening up a big empty area behind Hangar One. When I showed up for my tour yesterday there was our F-15A, once hidden in the back reaches of the museum’s 300 acres, newly on display alongside the path between […]
We were with friends at a party last night and talk turned to the Casey Anthony trial (which I haven’t followed and have no intention of discussing). My daughter said something about bread and circuses and suggested we should be more concerned about the 23,000 laid-off state workers in Minnesota. It quickly emerged that some […]
Plenty of excitement around here, what with both our children and one of our grandchildren on hand. The kids are going bowling today; I’m staying home to cook a pot of sauce and catch up on some reading. But I promised photos, so here goes:
Oh, c’mon, they don’t still burn books, do they? Yes, they do. By the way, I just downloaded this book — Lawrence Hill’s The Book of Negroes — to my Nook and will be reviewing it soon. On the Banned Wagon: students report on a historic book banning in their own school district. Want to […]