“It was a New Jersey farmer, as Thomas Jefferson pointed out, who invented the modern wagon wheel, of which he had found an exact description in Homer. [Not Homer Simpson. The blind Greek guy.] This was the wheel with a circumference made from a single piece of wood. “American farmers, Jefferson added, when the invention […]

If you were born when Ike was president, as I was, and you take prescription drugs, you will have learned, or you will soon learn about the ‘doughnut hole’. When it comes to the doughnut hole, I am the opposite of an expert. I know nothing about it or how it came to be, so […]

One of the ways I’m beguiling my time in my golden years is watching old episodes of NYPD Blue. I enjoyed the show when it first aired, like millions of other viewers, and now, many years later, I am deeply impressed by the quality of the writing, the cinematography, the score, and, above all, the […]

I just finished watching  the six-hour miniseries ‘Lonesome Dove’ and, if it’s possible, I enjoyed it even more than the first time. I loved the book by Larry McMurtry, of course, and this series really does it justice. It’s visually beautiful, more so than anyone thought television could be; the music is great; and the […]

I don’’t know why it took me so long to get around to reading ‘Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil’ by John Berendt. The tour guides mentioned it when I visited the marvelous City of Savannah on my trip to Georgia several years ago, and I put it on my list, but you […]

I have often recommended George F. Kennan’s book ‘American Diplomacy 1900-1950 for its insights into world history and American attitudes toward the players and combatants, which are fascinating and thought-provoking. I’m reading it yet again, this time for enjoyment. The subject matter is grim enough, of course, two catastrophic bloody world wars, two enormous bloody […]

In March of 1943, Ensign James Reed was among a group of transient naval officers bound for combat assignments in the Pacific Theater aboard the USS Rochambeau, a French ocean liner converted to troop transport. The officers were quartered three or four to a stateroom and spent their time discussing world affairs. Ensign Reed was […]

I find the best way to understand an author I admire is to read their short stories, generally their first ventures into literature when they are mastering their craft.  Certainly this is true of Tolstoy, in his novella ‘The Cossacks’ and his sketches of the Crimean War, which gave him, according to an unidentified editor, […]