Columns
From the New York Times, Time magazine, and the complete Chicago Tribune syndicated columns
From the New York Times, Time magazine, and the complete Chicago Tribune syndicated columns
February is the season of small sorrows when everyone feels middle-aged even if you are sixteen, but there are cures for this. One is skating and another is the convivial lunch. You meet three friends at the Chat ‘N Chew and order soup and a sandwich and you yak and yak and nobody tries to […]
Read MoreRudolph Giuliani is running for president, it would seem, and watching his interviews reminds you that it is quite a leap from City Hall to the White House, and that the lecture circuit is not the best preparation for higher office. Out there, Mr. Giuliani is saying the same applause lines night after night, but […]
Read MoreAs a clean and articulate man, I was surprised to see the Biden for President movement run over a bicycle while backing out of the driveway and then take out the gladiolas, but there it was and the distinguished gentleman from Delaware had to go on Comedy Central to explain himself and then clarify his […]
Read MoreNew Year’s Eve is a high point of the old year and the low point of the new. You go off to a party with expectations of hilarity and camaraderie and wind up in a cacophonous room packed with people shouting at people two feet away. You eat shrimp and drink various grain- or grape-based […]
Read MoreThe world is full of surprises. Some things are new under the sun. A movie in the Mayan language was No. 1 at the box office, and Placido Domingo got booed at the Met, and Rudolph Giuliani is the leading candidate for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, and a congressman with a freezer full of […]
Read MoreI love reading Christmas newsletters in which the writer bursts the bonds of modesty and comes forth with one gilt-edged paragraph after another: “Tara was top scorer on the Lady Cougars soccer team and won the lead role in the college production of ‘Antigone,’ which by the way they are performing in the original Greek. […]
Read MoreAnd so Mr. Scrooge kept Christmas in his heart and made his clerk Bob Cratchit a partner and found an orthopedic surgeon who fixed Tiny Tim’s gimpy leg. Scrooge was a friend and benefactor to all and he also got his hair and eyebrows trimmed and bought a new suit, a blue pinstripe. People called […]
Read MoreA child is singing in the next room, calling on the faithful to come and be joyful and triumphant, as she watches a light-up snowman whose hands and feet and eyes turn green and blue and red and purple. A Santa perches on the mantle over the fireplace and two manger scenes cohabit the side […]
Read MoreAs you get older and you can afford to eat well, your metabolism shrinks to that of a common warbler. A cruel irony. That is why, at pricey restaurants, you see old coots pay $35 for a big white plate with three scallops on it and a dollop of rice and some emulsified celery. That […]
Read MoreI’m sitting under a banyan tree in Honolulu with a big glass of pomegranate juice, and the sea is glittering and surfers are skimming in on low waves, and the election is over, so let’s all relax and quit irritating each other. Okay? Nancy Pelosi, the she-wolf from Sodom, is about to become the madam […]
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