In the aftermath of a painful truth about the death of an American boy on an American shore, I taught my racial psychology class, and the irony did not escape us last night. It is in the pre-holiday spirit where the teacher does not want to teach; the students do not want to learn. Early dismissal and goodbye. But it just doesn't go down that way. ...
It takes a great deal of courage to submit a manuscript for possible publication. Many writers spend months, even years, putting down on paper what they feel will be, if not the Great American Novel, then at least a darn good one. They look back with pleasure on the long hours of pounding the keyboard in producing that first draft. With less
The Black Man as a Protector Pretend you are walking towards home or towards a store entrance and you walk past an African American male. How many of you assume that he must be a bad man seeking to harm you rather than someone who could save your life? Sadly, most
Above is a picture of Frederico Bruno, he is accused of pushing his ex-girlfriend and 3 month old child out of a window three stories high. He climbs down from the same window, finds a metal bar stool leg and beats her with it as she is lying on top of the 3 month old baby who broke her fall to a concrete ground. Read that over again. Take a
There will be an abbreviated session of the floating book shop today, then I'll be off to Jersey to celebrate the 14th birthday of my great niece/godchild Danielle. Meanwhile, here's a preview of the story I've been working on the past week. It's about 95% done. I used a few Italian terms. I'm not sure about the spelling of one, i sciarri, marital
There were two particularly interesting op-ed pieces in today's NY Post. George Marlin focused on the pay of legislators. In Texas it's $7200; in Connecticut $28,000; New Jersey $49,000; New York $79,000 - and they want a raise! And this doesn't even count their perks. An elite class of the corrupt and entitled has been created. Too bad their pay s
There's a maniac on the loose in our section of Brooklyn. On June 6th a shop keeper was murdered at 7718 5th Av. in Bay Ridge. The creep used a .22 caliber handgun. This past week another at 1877 86th Street met the same fate. Neither victim was robbed. Police are wondering if the similarity in the building numbers is purely coincidental. Today I s
Carla Neggers has been writing since she was eleven. She has had great success, publishing 60 novels in the romantic mystery genre. Her work has been translated into 24 languages. I just finished Kiss the Moon (1999). Set in rural Vermont, she describes the area convincingly. The characters are believable and interesting. The mystery worked, althou
This week I watched a television production of Dr. Zhivago (2002), courtesy of Netflix. It was in two parts, each less than two hours. Based on the novel by Boris Pasternack, one can't help but compare it to David Lean's 1965 film, which won five Oscars. The first is more cinematic, of course, the second more intimate. Which Lara was better, Julie
How encouraging that so many Americans across the nation stood up for free speech by flocking to Chick-fil-A restaurants yesterday. Former Arkansas governor, current talk show host, Mike Huckabee suggested a national appreciation day. Kudos, although I suspect people would have have patronized the franchise spontaneously. I know I would have were t
I watched another of the music videotapes I made, this one circa 1996. In fact, there was a clip from Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve featuring Kiss doing I Wanna Rock n Roll All Night just before the ball fell to usher in 1997. There were some fabulous babes stage side, as there were in a Doobies Brothers reunion broadcast on PBS. They did a
Some days the floating book shop is more fun than others. Such was the case this afternoon, even though I didn't make a lot of money. A woman introduced herself as Karen and said she'd seen the article about me in the Bay News. Her neighbor had also seen it and wondered if I wanted books he'd attempted to donate to the library and been turned down.
NYC's head nanny, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is at it again. He has been on crusades against smoking, trans-fats, soft drinks, and automobiles. He has claimed that banning smoking from restaurants and buildings has saved many lives. I hate smoking, but I am skeptical of the claim. It doesn't seem that less people are smoking. Then again, maybe that's
Politicians in certain areas of the country are trying to block new Chick-fil-A restaurants from opening, citing the owner's opposition to gay marriage and belief in traditional marriage of man and woman, as stated in the Bible, a belief held by most of the public, although, according to polls, the margin seems to be shrinking. He is not banning an
I had another strange dream last night. For some reason, I was sleeping on a couch in a corner of a warehouse and awoke to a mob hit. The gangsters didn't notice me, so I hid behind the couch and covered myself with an afghan my mom knit for me ages ago, which I still use. The most interesting aspect was the clarity of the moral dilemma. I did not
A couple of weeks ago I received a letter from my health care provider, which included a check for $196. One of the facets of ObamaCare is the 80/20 rule. A firm must use 80% of its revenue on customers. It was determined that the company in question allocated only 69%. In a sense, it was fined, forced to make payouts even to those, like me, who ha
I haven't been this hooked by a song in a long time. I heard Gotye's Somebody That I Used to Know for the first time last week. It's a tale of love gone bad, the bitterness after the break up. It appears simplistic musically. In this case, the old adage "less is more" is as true as ever. Of course, it helps to have compelling lyrics. They are not a
I caught up to Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2011) last night, courtesy of Netflix. Based on a 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo, it is solid film-making, but it rarely soars. It is unusually understated for a Spielberg film. It is basically a reworking of Homer's The Odyssey, set during WWI, with a beautiful stallion at the center of the story. One b
Baseball writers are proffering their opinion on the Skanks acquisition of Ichiro from the Mariners, the team he spent eleven years with. His once awesome hitting skills seem to be in steep decline. Being a Yankees-hater and a fatalist when it comes to the Bronx Bombers, I predict that the 11-time all-star will be revived, embraced by their front-r
I just read about the penalties the NCAA imposed on the Penn St. football program. Wow - four-year probation, no league championship game appearances, no bowl appearances, a cut in scholarships, and the vacating of 111 wins since 1998. I didn't expect that last part. This knocks Joe Paterno from winningest coach in history to twelfth. According to
