What Gilbert and Sullivan Mean to Me The oeuvre of Gilbert and Sullivan occupies an iconic niche in anglo culture, where it stands alone. Gilbert and Sullivan works are often compared to others that feature a small orchestra and witty,… Read More ›
Commentary
Waking Up To Woke
The term “woke” has acquired wide currency. According to Google, it means: “awareness of issues that concern social justice and racial justice”. Surprisingly, it seems that people on all sides of the culture war have a similar understanding of “woke”. … Read More ›
What’s So Bad About Feeling Good?
The title above is actually the name of a 1968 film starring Mary Tyler Moore and George Peppard. In this film the two actors, who usually play straight-arrow types, are weirdly cast as a beatnik/hippie artist couple living in sin… Read More ›
Idealism in the Movies – Where Did it Go?
After watching some of the latest streaming shows, I began to wonder why almost every new streaming movie (especially Netflix) seems to feature a cast of flawed characters performing morally dubious acts. Then, over the holidays, I watched in succession… Read More ›
My Personal Reality Check Scheme
I was born curious, trained as a scientist, and worked a lot in quality control. If something is important to me, I usually like to find out what is actually going on, rather than relying on hearsay or gossip, or… Read More ›
God II
My parents did not take my brother and me to church until I was 8. Before that, my mother read us Bible stories at bedtime. My first idea of God was the guy in the Old Testament who runs everything. … Read More ›
Enlightened Self-Interest (1957)
In 1957, I was 4’11” tall, entering the 9th grade, and still shorter than many girls. I tried hard at basketball, the big sport at our school that couldn’t afford football. It was tough going being short and slow, but… Read More ›
Early Experiences with Baseball (1948)
1948 was a long time ago, but I remember some things like yesterday. The War was over … and we had won. What a thing that was! People were tired and beat up, but, oh, what a sense of victory… Read More ›
Civics Class (1956)
Outside the school, a light rain fell, dripping down the old red bricks. Inside the 9th grade civics classroom, shiny-clean students with new fall clothes barely noticed the weather as the opening bell rang, and latecomers fumbled with text books… Read More ›
History Class in High School 1960
As I walked into class, absently observing the back side of Cary Ross, the tardy bell rang, and we both scrambled to our seats. If you were not seated when the bell stopped ringing, some teachers would mark you tardy. … Read More ›
ENO-SENSE - Words Making Sense 