It's as if somebody dropped a bomb on the London Library. The idea of the Encyclopedia Britannica not being up there on its physical shelf, radiating Truth and Authority, offering the final word on any research topic, erudite argument or dinner table conversation? It's too much to bear.

But the word… Read full post »

Boomers are retiring -- at 10,000 per day -- to the suburbs? Things are going to get grim.

Will Doig over on Salon.com (Regular Salon, that is) has a thoroughly researched and somewhat frightening article on the retiree rush to geeen acres that is reportedly rampant among U.S. boomers.  He argue… Read full post »

Last month was chock full of wake-up calls. Usually such an ordinary month, January has always been a good time to stay home by the fire, avoid over-exertion, enjoy being complacent. Not this year.

 There is something comfortable about complacency. Such as surfing around to read everyone else's… Read full post »

The Neue Gallery is one of my favorite museums in all Manhattan. A small but stately, multi-story, zillion-dollar gem just across and down the street from the Metropolitan, crammed (but tastefully so) to the ceilings with exquisite paintings by Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, and with assorted other p… Read full post »

That collective exhale you hear is from supporters of women's rights in the U.S., on hearing that Mississippi's harshly anti-abortion Initiative 26 went down to a resounding defeat.

The measure would have bestowed "personhood" upon the "pre-born," putting an end to all abortion, most contraception an… Read full post »

Somewhere there is a disconnect.

The human population of this fragile planet has topped seven billion, headed to eight billlion at a record pace -- we should be there by 2023 even as we continue to kill each other for stupid reasons. Or for no reason at all.

The "personhood" movement… Read full post »

In case you missed it, the tenth anniversary of the beginning of the war in Afghanistan came and went a couple of weeks ago. October 6, to be precise. The date marked another anniversary: a small group of people have been occupying not exactly America, but the corner of Golden Gate… Read full post »

Full disclosure: I never went to the University of California, Berkeley -- probably couldn't have passed Chemistry 1-2 if I had -- and I don't know Saul Perlmutter. But in meetings around the San Francisco Bay area in recent days, everyone I met seemed to know Saul… Read full post »

At last: vindication. Those of us who still cling to newspapers and old-fashioned print media for enlightenment now have had this good judgement affirmed by the Harvard School of Public Health. Prolonged TV viewing, according to a recent HSPH study, is associated with increased risk of type… Read full post »

 Armond and Dorothy Rudolph were a couple most of us would've liked to know: born about the time of the first World War, married in 1941, parents of a son and a daughter, independent spirits all their lives. Daughter Elaine said they had given her a deep… Read full post »

This is a serious wake-up call! the subject head proclaims. It is one of those “Forward this to everyone on your e-mail list!!” messages that come periodically from  friends whose ideology veers decidedly off to the right. I sometimes hit the delete button fast, but often read throug… Read full post »

I caught up with my friend Amy McCombs yesterday, a rare chance to catch up, at the same time, with global journalism. After a fast-paced chat over a slow latte, I now think maybe the world -- and its news coverage -- might survive. The gradual loss of real, live, on-site… Read full post »

World peace: you may think it unlikely. But spend a few hours among members and friends of the Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual Organization, and you could change your mind. Brahma Kumaris “study spiritual knowledge that nurtures respect for all faith traditions, coherently explains the nature of… Read full post »

I wish to stop the wars.

I wish no global warming.

“Wish Tree for MoMA” installed by Yoko Ono about a year ago, stands beside her instruction on the nearby window: “Make a wish. Write it down on a piece of paper. Fold it… Read full post »

When the big, white Bekins truck pulled off I couldn’t even turn around and look. I was walking up the block, having done the goodbye hug etc, but the finality of hearing the loading ramp clang shut and the engine motors start was too much. I mean, I was in serious… Read full post »

The least favorite thing most of us caregivers -- the heavy-duty ones like many I know, or the minimal ones as I've recently become -- want to hear is the B-word. As in I hate being such a burden...

Prompted by a conversation with a good friend who, like me,… Read full post »