I’ve been having great fun with a book I got at the Emily Dickinson Museum called Lives Like Loaded Guns by Lyndall Gordon. The Dickinson family had a grandmother, Lucretia Gunn, who was “tart and ill-tempered.” When anyone said anything nasty, it was excused as Grandma Gunn coming out. This was probably behind Emily’s line […]

My Life So Far by Jane Fonda is a great read which I picked up for background information when Sarah and I went to Squam Lake in New Hampshire, where she made On Golden Pond with her father Henry and Katherine Hepburn. You would think that growing up as the daughter of a big movie […]

Every once in a while, when I get ambitious, I try to tackle the writings of Edmund Wilson, the great man of letters who was my grandmother’s cousin. Lately I’ve been trying to slog through To the Finland Station, subtitled “A study in the writing and acting of history.” The first chapters are about a […]

For the disaffected Bernie supporters who say Hillary Clinton stole the nomination, I say “I cannot disagree.” For those who say, it doesn’t matter which party wins the presidential election, I say, “You are tragically misinformed.” For one thing, there’s the Supreme Court. For another, there is international funding for family planning, which is automatically […]

I read a poem in the Frontier High School (Deerfield, Massachusetts) Red Hawk Report which I think should be read by every educator in America, especially by “special” educators. The poem is titled “Ignorance is Bliss,” by Will Bliss, and it was published in volume II issue 4. In this poem, in calm, simple terms, […]

I have always had difficulty understanding the great books written by my grandmother’s cousin Edmund “Bunny” Wilson, but I have come to appreciate the great contribution this great man of letters has made to the field of literary criticism. In Axel’s Castle, for example, I learned all kinds of things about William Butler Yeats, T.S. […]

Years ago I gave a friend a copy of one of Tony Hillerman’s books. When I visited him six months later I noticed he had a whole shelf loaded with Hillerman mysteries. They’re like peanuts: people just keep consuming them. Most of Hillerman’s mysteries recount the adventures of Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and Officer and later […]

I had a fabulous time at the Casa de Tio Vincenzo in Huntington Beach, California. Everything was exactement comme il faut. I especially loved the rich cherry flooring: And the extraordinary artwork: And of course, one of the most important things for Americans these days is keeping ourselves safe from terrorists. I know it is […]