One Flew Over the Crucifix
Contrary to what Roger Rosenblatt famously wrote in Time magazine after 9/11, irony is not dead; in fact it’s never been more abundant. And one of the most peculiar manifestations of it is the way in...
View Article"I am you as you are me," etc.
Within days of the dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden, the nation was back to its default position—bickering: Was the killing legal? Did torture make it possible? Should George W. Bush get as much...
View ArticleThe Wicked Messenger, Redux
Bob Dylan turns 70 tomorrow. I recently found myself pondering the more important factor in life, time or space. Dylan's birthday has helped clarify the question for me. They’ve seen Dylan in Budokan...
View ArticleIronies in Blossom
"The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" contains one of the great movie lines: “This is the West, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”I love that line even though it stands a core belief of...
View ArticleYankee Doodle Turkeys
I know there’s probably a pithy patriotic statement from Jefferson or Lincoln or Arthur Schlesinger Jr. for me to pivot off here, but in sympathy with vacation minds this holiday I’ll keep it simple...
View ArticleBook of Jobs
From excerpts and interviews I’m gathering that Walter Isaacson has managed to turn out a biography equal to his subject in Steve Jobs. I love the fact that Isaacson reports that Dylan was the...
View ArticleTipping Point
As of the first of this month, citizens of Wisconsin maintain second amendment rights to bear arms in their statehouse. But they do not maintain first amendment rights to express themselves with...
View ArticleI Was a Child
Ever since I chased a pickpocket in Paris to a quickly departing train two months ago, I’ve been wondering what would’ve happened if I’d taken the final leap and confronted him onboard. He knew who I...
View ArticleWho Ya Gonna Thank?
Thanksgiving marks the opening of Saying Grace Season, and our custom is to play by Major League Baseball rules as regards the designated hitter during interleague play and the World Series. In other...
View ArticleMana
I’ve blogged in the past about Wife Lorna’s magical effect on the fortunes of my team, the New England Patriots. And I’ve also blogged on Super Christian Tim Tebow’s magical effect on the fortunes of...
View ArticleA Child's Christmas Bewailed
I was introduced to A Child’s Christmas in Wales, Dylan Thomas’s nostalgia-rich reflection on what we now euphemistically refer to as “the holidays,” by my Jewish roommate in college. Marty’s three...
View ArticleReflections on a Resolution
It was exactly a year ago that I made my New Year’s resolution for 2011 to stop teasing myself about writing a blog and to actually do it. Admittedly I set the goal modestly at a post a week. (I also...
View ArticleHitchens in Heaven--A Dispatch
I’m awake. The pain is gone. I can breathe freely again. But I don’t have to. My body seems imbued with oxygen. Or opium. Something very blissful. A figure is approaching. Floating in on what appears...
View ArticleHeroes as Villains
Two of my heroes are in the spotlight these days. Dylan is there because Amnesty International is celebrating 50 years of doing some damned good in this world with a fund-raising CD featuring covers of...
View ArticleIs There No Success Like Failure?
I don’t use the word fatuous often when referring to the lyrics of the poet Laureate of The Nobby Works, Mister Bob Dylan, but I’m afraid I have to in regards to one of his more oft-quoted lines from...
View ArticleCapriccio's Desert Island Ditties
This past week I played that old desert island game with some friends. You know how it goes, like “what 10 albums would you take with you to a desert island” (you can tell the demographic of the group...
View ArticleWhat's Up, Doc?
Deception is the great white shark of human ethical dilemmas. It’s a compelling, scary, and misunderstood force of human nature. Though, ironically, the great white may be one of Mother nature's least...
View ArticleThe Bugs Bunny Contract with America
A few weeks ago I suggested that Democrats act less like the scared rabbits they've been since about the day Jimmy Carter was actually scared by a rabbit, and become more like the one rabbit who...
View ArticleLonesome Death of Trayvon Martin
(with apologies to Bob Dylan)George M. Zimmerman killed poor Trayvon Martin With a gun that he twirled around his fat trigger finger On a Florida street in broad fucking daylight And the cops were...
View ArticleA Prayer for Dick Cheney (What Are They Thinking? Part II)
The recent mania over the Mega Lottery reminded me of this comedy bit (I paraphrase) Moe: I’ve gotta buy a lottery ticket this week. The jackpot’s up to $637 million. Joe: What was it last week? Moe:...
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