When the American version of The Office first appeared, it was condescending in a Hollywood way, written by people who may have once, briefly, worked in a setting similar to Dunder-Mifflin, but always believed they were destined for better things, and got the hell out as soon… Read full post »

So my question… Read full post »

In a column that manages to be sensationalistic, disjointed and incoherent, Frank Bruni discovers the shocking information that there seems to be a double-standard for women and men when it comes to sexual activity.

He writes about the Amanda Knox case and how her perceived licentiousness led… Read full post »

Ezra Pound????? The musical? Was that supposed to be an inside joke between Julia and Tom, and maybe the deadpan delivery got in the way? Or, is this show really being written by idiots who just filled in Ezra Pound having no idea about all… Read full post »

We decided to see Giulio Cesare because we liked the publicity photo of Natalie Dessay with the Louise Brooks’ bob. Despite our misgivings about the Vegas Rigoletto, the Bollywood Cesare looked like fun.

It was around this time last year we saw Dessay in La Traviata, and fell in love… Read full post »

Part I – Nobody wants to read the great novel you wrote:

Without going into a whole history of digital self-publishing, let’s just admit the current situation sucks. Sure there are now self-published e-books regularly featured in The New York Times Sunday Book Review combined e-/… Read full post »

The Switched at Birth all-ASL-episode, Uprising, is rightly getting a lot of kudos. As a fan of the show, I found it brilliant. It showed the various characters being exactly who they are in a crisis – Melody trying to temper her own idealism with pragmatism,… Read full post »

From The New York Times, 2/27/13 -- A central provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 may be in peril, judging from tough questioning on Wednesday from the Supreme Court’s more conservative members.

If the court overturns the provision, nine states, mostly in the… Read full post »

The days of hate-watching are over. First season Smash may have been dumb, but it was, at least occasionally, interesting.

It’s not that I don’t hate the new season. I do, but it’s no longer entertaining, and whereas before I could sort of tune-out the stupid, or groan… Read full post »

In 2005, after electing not to treat his final bout with cancer, my father was able to get “home hospice” services. Like most elderly in the US who have insurance, he had “managed care.” He was encouraged to have an home health aide (HHA)  in the house to… Read full post »

Once upon a time there was a princess. She was beautiful but lonely. Men were intimidated by her, and women envious. She was pure and virginal. Strange circumstances bring her to a remote castle. A mysterious man visits her at night and they become lovers but she… Read full post »

Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Dexter, Homeland, and now The Americans. What do they have in common? They all ask us to identify with imposters, phonies, and anti-heros of varying degrees. Don Draper is really Dick Whitman, an army deserter, who succeeds by selling pretty lies.…

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Barack Obama                                                   &nb… Read full post »

Just wanted to point you to an article from last June in the Daily Kos exploring how the rise in cell phones may be effecting telephone polling. The theory is that because it’s more difficult to reach people who don’t have landlines, and because these people are often the… Read full post »

Back in September, before the first debate, things were looking good for the President, but the voter suppression stuff was worrisome especially in Pennsylvania.  I kept seeing a clip of that sleaze-ball Republican legislator saying that voter identification would win the state for Romney. H… Read full post »

So there’s this extremely offensive-to-Muslims 14 minute video and riots are breaking out and people have been killed in parts of the world where (1) people don’t have the same understanding of “free speech” that we have in the US, (2) may be misinformed about free speech i… Read full post »

The boys liked to roughhouse, pull my tail or show me a biscuit and take it away, but they were my boys and I loved them.

The Daddy kept his distance. He almost never had a good word to say, but he was the pack leader and I loved… Read full post »

Republican spokes-curmudgeon John Sununu does it again. What a feisty old crock. His M.O. seems to be to bait the reporters by questioning their allegiances and implying they're in the tank for Obama when they ask him other than fawning questions. This doesn't completely work. That is,… Read full post »

In explaining why his boss's name appeared on SEC-filed documents as the chair and chief executive of Bain Capital up until 2002 even though Romney claims to have left the company in 1999, top Romney adviser, Ed Gillespie, stated there was no discrepancy because Romney had retired "retroactively" in… Read full post »

Regarding, Romney’s speech to the NAACP on Tuesday, Nancy Pelosi told Bloomberg Television, “It was a calculated move on his part to get booed at the NAACP convention.”

She wasn’t the only one to see it that way.  Many pundits have by now made this assertion as well.… Read full post »

In solidarity with Anderson Cooper, Kelly Ripa publicly acknowledged she is a natural brunette, Kathy Griffin admitted to being "over 40," Beyonce affirmed  she is black, and Mitt Romney has come out as a human-lizard android hybrid. Read full post »