Original anecdotes, commentary, rumination, and occasional pontification.
JULY 14, 2024 – Today I finished reading The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes, a British scholar with serious academic chops and credentials. He’s written no fewer than nine books on Russian and European history, which have been translated into 30 languages. Yet, as is so often the case among academics, Figes has his …
JULY 9, 2024 – I concluded yesterday’s technology episode on a positive note—specifically, the likely prospect that I could jawbone the manager of the MOA Apple Store to reimbursement me for the hefty cost of data recovery. Once I’d cinched that deal, I figured I’d ship the device straight away to the data salvage outfit. …
JUNE 28, 2024 – Here’s my take on yesterday evening’s train wreck in Atlanta: the debate produced a rare and magical freeze-framed moment in the annals of American presidential campaign history. Far from being an actual “total disaster,” it’s a juncture where Democrats, Republicans, and all stripes of political independents are in total agreement. The …
JUNE 24, 2024 – I’m now deep into the book I mentioned in my June 19 post—The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes. The author’s thesis is that much about Russia of today is from the mold of myth; that Putin’s justification for the assault on Ukraine, as well as his domestic autocracy are rooted …
JUNE 20, 2024 – This afternoon we spent 90 minutes aboard a time machine, and though we never left the present, we experienced the past—over 410 years in the past, to be precise. The excitement was aboard the Onrust, a replica of the old Dutch sailing vessel built in 1613-14 by Adrien Block, a lawyer-turned-merchant-fortune …
JUNE 18, 2024 – Today we drove from Lyme to New Haven. Our destination was Yale University, or more specifically, the Yale University Art Gallery. I’d driven and ridden the route numerous times, but this was the first occasion when I was especially conscious of the names along the way—Clinton, Leetes, Trumbull, Stewart R. McKinney, …
JUNE 7, 2024 – It’s instructive, I think, to view the Duly Defeated’s stranglehold on the Party of Lincoln—and Nixon—through the historic prism of the Watergate Era. This perspective can reassure hand-ringers worried that the Duly Defeated might well become the Duly Elected. During the first impeachment hearings of Biden’s immediate predecessor—remember that far back?—a …
JUNE 6, 2024 – For years the Soviet view of the D-Day invasion was inversely proportionate to the American obsession with commemoration of that historic day. Stalin had long been pressing Churchill and Roosevelt to open a second front in Western Europe to draw Germans away from the Eastern Front, where the Nazis had been …
MAY 26, 2024 – I recognized the small, embossed leather pouch with its tidy snap-down cover and bearing the stylized initials “CPA.” The gold letters were undiminished by time, though long expunged from memory is the identity of the pouch’s original owner. I’d uncovered the object among an unorganized cluster of odd-lot keepsakes consigned to …
MAY 25, 2024 – (Cont.) In the morning of May 25, Dan and I found our way to the Dalkon Shield Settlement Claims Administration facility occupying a full city block in downtown Richmond. On hand to greet us was Mike Sheppard. I remember him well even without the aid of my journal. He engaged with …
APRIL 4, 2024 – Okay, okay. Today I was determined as ever to write a political screed. I was all fired up after having digested a Times column about RFK, Jr. (Talk about setting your hair on fire!) Yet, two sentences in and I realized my opinion was of no greater worth than my description …
MARCH 29, 2024 – When I heard about the “Key Bridge,” I thought of the “main” or “key” bridge serving greater Baltimore. I was not thinking about the author of the lyrics to our national anthem. The more information I absorb about the recent catastrophe and the enormous projects—recovery, clean-up and rebuilding—the more amazed I …
MARCH 19, 2024 – (Cont.) One of the papers I wrote for that freshman year survey course in Western Civilization was about the sincerity of Constantine’s conversion. Was he truly committing mind, heart, and soul to Jesus or . . . being a supreme opportunist was he simply riding the rising swell of Christianity within …
MARCH 18, 2024 – (Cont.) There on the top shelf was a book in mint condition. On its dignified spine was the incongruous title, A Short History of Byzantium: what could be short about a history of an 1,100-year empire? Were they still among the living, my college history profs would be impressed that I …
MARCH 17, 2024 – This post—more likely, series of posts—is about pure Shakespeare at the same time it had nothing at all to do with the Bard. It has much more to do with books by way of an example of one . . . or perhaps three condensed into one. From an early age …
JULY 4, 2023 – In commemoration of Independence Day, today’s post breaks from my individual “inheritance” to celebrate our collective American inheritance. But in the mix of dazzling fireworks, condiment-loaded hot dogs, and liberal servings of potato salad, we should take a sober and sobering account of that inheritance. In my early school years, American …
MAY 30, 2023 – (Cont.) Second: the plight of women. This is one of history’s great challenges. With some notable exceptions, women have shouldered burdens and abuse disproportionate to their 50% representation of humanity. (In the case of extremist Ukrainian atrocities against the Poles of Volhynia, women and children were a sizable majority of the …
MAY 30, 2023 – One evening recently I stumbled upon a Polish film entitled Wołyń (pronounced, VO-win), which is a region of Central-Eastern Europe fraught with history and bloodshed in a four-way tug-of-war among Poles, Jews, Ukrainians, Russians and Germans. Notice that I said “four-way” but named five “tribes.” That’s because historically, the Jewish population …
MAY 9, 2023 – Late this month, Brown University will confer honorary doctorate degrees on six Americans of distinction. Among them will be the inimitable Ruth Oppenheim. I first met Ruth during college. Her son, Jeff, a close friend of mine, had invited me to stay with the family in Barrington, Rhode Island over Thanksgiving …
MAY 2, 2023 – Juxtaposed to denial of the undeniable results of the 2020 presidential election, the Watergate scandal that ended the Nixon regime now looks comparatively tame. A deeper examination of the record, however, reveals the broader danger that Nixon posed to the democracy. Without “White House Tapes”—voice-activated recordings of Nixon’s Oval Office conversations—might …
APRIL 27, 2023 – Finally, 650 pages and the comprehensive survey of the worst conflagration the world has ever known are behind me. I speak of Inferno, The World at War, 1939 – 1945 by Max Hastings. Few books have had such an impact on my psyche and my world view generally. I could easily …
APRIL 22, 2023 – The world awaits Ukraine’s much anticipated spring offensive against the Russian invaders. Perhaps I overstate matters when I say, “the world.” At the time of the invasion 14 months ago, when news coverage was 24/7, we watched slack-jawed as Putin unleashed his horrors on the sovereign nation of Ukraine. The assault …
APRIL 18, 2023 – The other day I enjoyed a long conversation with a college friend-classmate during which we talked a fair amount of politics. He’s a student of history, and in the context of our political discussion, historical perspectives necessarily came into play. He struggles, as do I, with making judgments about the views, …
APRIL 16, 2023 – (Cont.) I was soon drawn into the series by the wits and courage of the protagonists. They were young and well-educated Americans who put grand-scale principles of personal gain, pleasure and safety. They exhibited unusual chutzpah and were leagues ahead of their government in understanding the full implications of the coming …
APRIL 15, 2023 – I’m amazed by what people do. I speak here not of the bad stuff, though granted, we do a lot of that too. No, I refer here to the extraordinary feats of creative, curious and determined minds that produce works of wonder. My astonishment exceeds ever so slightly my ignorance of …