Fidel announced via midnight letter to Granma, the official Cuban newspaper, that he is stepping down, and does not want to “cling to power” after nearly fifty years. It is not an obituary; we will still have to wait for that. It sounded a lot like the old Castro we have known for so long, […]

Can there be coincidence that this President’s Day, honoring Lincoln and Washington, can simultaneously be the commemoration of the independence of Kosovo and the anniversary of the election of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy? Perhaps it is just that history is bunk, as Henry Ford maintained, and there are only so many days […]

Can there be coincidence that this President’s Day, honoring Lincoln and Washington, can simultaneously be the commemoration of the independence of Kosovo and the anniversary of the election of Jefferson Davis as president of the Confederacy? Perhaps it is just that history is bunk, as Henry Ford maintained, and there are only so many days […]

I get a lot of mail, and this curious thing was in the in-box this morning. It is from another owner of a Hubrismobile, a real one, complete with the AMG speed-and-performance package that I could never afford. She goes by the screen-name “HotOne,” which is predictable enough. She has been encouraging me to attend […]

I get a lot of mail, and this curious thing was in the in-box this morning. It is from another owner of a Hubrismobile, a real one, complete with the AMG speed-and-performance package that I could never afford. She goes by the screen-name “HotOne,” which is predictable enough. She has been encouraging me to attend […]

Mardy 1 sent the note around to the usual suspects yesterday, and it caught me up short. Jack is dead. Gone. Checked out Big Pink for good. I knew he was ill, had been ill, I corrected myself. Carol B told me about it when I called on her briefly in the office on the […]

Mardy 1 sent the note around to the usual suspects yesterday, and it caught me up short. Jack is dead. Gone. Checked out Big Pink for good. I knew he was ill, had been ill, I corrected myself. Carol B told me about it when I called on her briefly in the office on the […]

Every year on this day, the Romans celebrated the founding of their great city by killing two goats and a dog, smearing the blood on the foreheads of two noble youths. The rite referred to Romulus and Remus, the Original Romans, half divine and half mortal, by Mars, out of Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, to […]

Every year on this day, the Romans celebrated the founding of their great city by killing two goats and a dog, smearing the blood on the foreheads of two noble youths. The rite referred to Romulus and Remus, the Original Romans, half divine and half mortal, by Mars, out of Vestal Virgin Rhea Silvia, to […]

By the time the re-run of The Simpsons was over, the whole thing was wrapped up. I enjoyed the episode; it was the one where Crusty the Clown is framed for robbing the Quicky Mart by Sideshow Bob, whose voice is provided by the actor Kelsey Grammer. Kelsey has quite a back-story in his personal […]