There’s a funny scene in Gran Torino, one of the best movies I’ve ever seen, where Walt Kowalski (Clint Eastwood) and John Carroll Lynch (Martin the barber) try to teach Thao Vang Lor (Bee Vang) how to talk like a …

I was saddened to learn of the death of Mike Kittredge because I had hoped he would recover from his stroke and apply his immeasurable talents to making the world a better place, which he surely would have done if …

I can’t resist sharing this poem by my friend Bob Hay. the late Bob Hay. He bequeathed me a whole box of notebooks filled with poetry and sketches, and I’ve only read the first one. This poem is called ‘Oratory …

My friend Bob Hay passed away last year, and I learned only recently that he left me a box of notebooks full of his poetry. I guess that makes me his literary executor, which I consider a great honor. I …

I’ve been having great fun reading an excellent biography of Edmund Wilson by Jeffrey Meyers, who tells the tale of three college chums.

Edmund Wilson, John Peale Bishop, and F. Scott Fitzgerald all went to Princeton together in 1915, and …

So how am I doing? Great! Ever since I started rereading The Laughing Policeman by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo. Here in the Happy Valley in July of 2019, it’s 80 degrees and sunny. In Stockholm, in November of …

‘ve been reading two biographies simultaneously: Edmund Wilson by Jeffrey Meyers  and Savage Beauty: Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford. It’s a truly fascinating study. The scion of an upper-middle-class family in Red Bank, NJ, and the genius child …

I went to New Haven this weekend for my 45th college reunion. Not too many of my classmates showed up. I don’t think the class of 1974 identifies much with the institution. Some buddies of mine live in Niantic and …