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Kicking around Nixon and more
He's back. But you knew he would be. Suddenly he is everywhere - Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States. (Boston Globe, 12 a.m.)
Kicking around Nixon and more
He's back. But you knew he would be. Suddenly he is everywhere - Richard M. Nixon, the 37th president of the United States. (Boston Globe, 5/5/08)
War of the virtual Wiki-worlds
What if they decided to pursue the Arab-Israeli conflict by other means? Inevitably, it would take place on the Internet. And inevitably Wikipedia would be involved. (Boston Globe, 5/3/08)
A day that suits some to a tee
Today is World No-Golf Day, a festival more honored in the breach than in the observance. It is a green letter day on my calendar because years ago I met Gen Morita, founder of the International Anti-Golf Alliance, who started the movement. (Boston Globe, 4/29/08)
Sick and green over Earth Day
The French Revolution gave us Thermidor, which refers to the inevitable, conservative reaction that follows a time of radical upheaval. And what better day than today, Earth Day, to celebrate Eco-Thermidor, the ecological movement's plunge into narcissistic self-parody and mind-numbing idiocy. To paraphrase the critic Dorothy Parker: You hear the word "green" and you want to fwow up. (Boston Globe, 4/22/08)
It'd take a miracle and then some
When Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor, John Paul II, visited foreign countries, he often "carried a saint in his pocket." Sometimes more than one. So now, at the end of Benedict's six-day visit, we have every right to ask: Where are our saints? (Boston Globe, 4/19/08)
It'd take a miracle and then some
When Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor, John Paul II, visited foreign countries, he often "carried a saint in his pocket." Sometimes more than one. So now, at the end of Benedict's six-day visit, we have every right to ask: Where are our saints? (Boston Globe, 4/18/08)
Futurists face extinction; bad writing lives on
Two futurists from Australia have designed an amusing and provocative "Extinction Timeline," which purports to predict when certain social phenomena, e.g., love biting or dial-up Internet service, disappear. Naturally I searched immediately for "newspapers" and discovered that they see "physical newspapers" lasting until 2048, the year when they predict the demise of Google and of blindness. By their calculation, newspapers ... (Boston Globe, 4/15/08)
Futurists go extinct; bad writing lives on
Two futurists from Australia have designed an amusing and provocative "Extinction Timeline," which purports to predict when certain social phenomena, e.g., love biting or dial-up Internet service, disappear. Naturally I searched immediately for "newspapers" and discovered that they see "physical newspapers" lasting until 2048, the year when they predict the demise of Google and of blindness. By their calculation, newspapers ... (Boston Globe, 4/14/08)
Canada's holey icon: Our eyes glaze over
On the first page of University of Toronto historian Steve Penfold's new book, "The Donut: A Canadian History," actor Eugene Levy proclaims: "If there's one thing that is distinct, that is ours, that Canadians can claim as theirs, I'd say it's donuts." On that same page, a resident of Halifax, Nova Scotia, calls doughnuts "kind of a uniquely Canadian thing." ... (Boston Globe, 4/12/08)
The K-School by any other name...
Samantha Power didn't get the memo! Nor, apparently, did retired John F. Kennedy School of Government - sorry, Harvard Kennedy School - professor Francis Bator. Both have been using the K-School's "old" name in communications of late. The Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, whose "discussion papers" stare up at me from the bottom of my ... (Boston Globe, 4/8/08)
A series of improbable events
What if there was one day a year when people all over the world decided to behave in a manner worthy of the species? What would they call that day? (Boston Globe, 4/1/08)
HBO's 'John Adams' takes some liberties with the truth
I find the older, post-canonization David McCullough a little hard to take. Doubtless, envy has poisoned my judgment. The guy has two Pulitzer Prizes, a honeyed writing style, and book sales that reliably register 6.0 and higher on the Grisham Scale. (Boston Globe, 3/26/08)
Historically accurate TV? A revolutionary idea.
I find the older, post-canonization David McCullough a little hard to take. Doubtless, envy has poisoned my judgment. The guy has two Pulitzer Prizes, a honeyed writing style, and book sales that reliably register 6.0 and higher on the Grisham Scale. (Boston Globe, 3/25/08)
If Kumar's for him, I'm for him
Once I learned that Kal Penn was campaigning for Barack Obama, that sealed the deal. You know who Kal Penn is, right? He played frat boy/stoner Taj Mahal Badalandabad in the movie "Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj" and cheetah-riding stoner Kumar in "Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle," perhaps the best movie ever made. So, if Kumar ... (Boston Globe, 2/11/08)