Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons, US nuclear weapon test, 1954 Nuclear Confrontation The New York Times carried the article about Trump’s movement of two US nuclear submarines closer to Russia way down on its Web list of articles. But the British Guardian kept the story of the latest episode of nuclear confrontation at the top of its Internet page. “Trump moves nuclear submarines after ex-Russia president’s menacing tweet,” (July 1, 2025). Why the Times would keep…
Photo credit: Getty Images for Unsplash+ August 1st For decades, when August 1st rolled around, a mild form of depression set in. This was sort of like anticipating fall foliage, although it’s obvious what that foliage will lead to in the US Northeast. I worked in public schools all my life, from kindergarten through the college level in all sorts of roles. My only private work was the years I worked as an adjunct at…
Photo credit: Children in a German concentration camp, Wikimedia Commons Genocide As I read “Gaza Hunger Presents Trump With Moral Test Familiar to Past Presidents,” (New York Times, July 30, 2025), I had to recoil. The Times lists a group of countries, past and present, facing famine due to war and the complexities involved in responding as the world’s only superpower today. But here lies the rub as Shakespeare observed. The responses were from presidents…
Photo credit: Assault rifle, Wikimedia Commons Gun Violence Gun violence is not a topic that I write about much anymore. I’ve written about several mass shootings in the US, and the review and writing about this subject takes a toll. A person can’t confront the horrors of Sandy Hook Elementary School, Virginia Tech, Columbine High School, among many, many others, without a negative reaction. Standing at the memorial to the victims of Adam Lanza’s violent…
Photo credit: The Banishment of Roger Williams, Wikimedia Commons Why Do We Hate So Much? I look at YouTube feeds every morning. Like most of the Internet, the feeds I receive are a combination of so-called channels I’ve watched and what algorithms YouTube “figures” out from my viewing habits. That’s the way most of the Internet, if not all of the Internet, works. I have shied away from YouTube of late because it seems like…
Photo credit: Road rage, Wikimedia Commons Counting the Aggression on the Garden State Parkway I’ve discussed road rage driving in the past. But on the Garden State Parkway this week, it was so obvious as to take even a casual observer’s breath away. A footnote first: That road, between the New York Thruway, 87, and the New Jersey Turnpike, is always packed. My car’s GPS-enabled screen continues to advise alternate routes, but who wants a…
Photo credit: Caricature of a Fat Cat, Wikipedia It’s All Greek to Me The cemetery on the island of Mykonos in the Mediterranean Sea is a kind of oasis amidst the largely barren landscape of the island’s hills and white homes. The sea is everywhere, as is the warmth. It was 37 years ago. The cemetery seemed to have lots of some kind of coniferous trees that lent uncommon green to the otherwise bleached, but…
Photo credit: Statue of W.E.B. Du Bois, Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Howard Lisnoff Author’s note: Apologies, as I often return to the French pronunciation of “Du Bois” in this audio file. A Native Son Returns Home I lost touch with the movement to erect a statue in honor of W.E.B. Du Bois in his hometown of Great Barrington, Massachusetts. I worked on a committee that was primarily focused on plans for the celebration of the 150th…
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons Photo credit: Library of Congress Now and Then: What We Focus On There’s a market and a following of salacious behavior in the US. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but we especially like or love to follow salacious behavior on the part of our leaders and so-called leaders. This fact has to be seen in the face of the mass murder going on daily in the Gaza…
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons Bottoms Up It seems that toilet habits, yes toilet habits in the US, and perhaps elsewhere, although you could never convince me of that, are not what they should be. They’re not up to snuff, so to speak. As a result, and in answer to this national, maybe international emergency, the fabled free market has stepped in and offered all the latest innovation and technological prowess in personal care products. If…