Read at Daily Herald website For many people, the term “AstroTurf” brings to mind images of professional football players, autumn afternoons and damaged knees. For those of us who deal with letters to the editor or other forms of “grass roots” commentary, the term sports an additional variation. But the core idea is still the Read More …
Category: Blog
These are random thoughts about topics that interest me — including books, rock and roll, philosophy, culture and daily life. I update it whenever the mood strikes me, shooting for at least once a week but often more frequently than that. I welcome your comments on anything I may discuss here and, when appropriate, will reply as promptly as possible.
Old mantra still valid for New Media
(Read in the Daily Herald) Useful. Different. Relevant. Time was, those were the three most important words in the Daily Herald newsroom, as close to a collective mantra as a body of committed skeptics is likely to embrace. Our success depended on our ability to provide information and entertainment that aspired to those three standards. Read More …
Book review: The Quartet by Joseph J. Ellis
Joseph J. Ellis is one of those reliable chroniclers of American history – in the company of Doris Kearns Goodwin and David McCullough – who cover the most familiar historical ground, yet somehow reshape it into something new. The Quartet only reinforces this reputation. Here, Ellis examines the studied combination of efforts from four “nationalists” – George Washington, John Jay, Read More …
A Rebuke of Irony
Deaf Beethoven. Blind Monet. Mute Granger. Man of the pen. Disciple of Algren, Sandburg, Norris. Contemporary of Royko, Kup, Mabley. Bereft of his words, Trapped for his own safety, mentally to paw aimlessly through the grimy politics of ’60s, ’70s and ’80s Chicago like Degas – yes him, too, blind – wandering the streets of Paris. He Read More …
Book review: Call The Midwife by Jennifer Worth
It would be very difficult for this book to live up to my hopes considering how strongly I feel about the BBC Television series it spawned, but it came close. To write prose with the elegant power that would be required to make the written word as moving, emotional and thought-provoking as the beautifully written Read More …
From Brussels terrorism, the too-frequent deliberations on an iconic image of tragedy
(My most-recent Daily Herald column.) Nearly every afternoon’s meeting of news editors concludes with a review of options for the next-day print edition’s most prominent Page 1 picture. On Tuesday, March 22, the day of the terrorist bombing in Brussels, the selection was especially difficult. Editors sifted through a variety of dramatic images, all showing Read More …
Pink Clouds
The early morning clouds of pink awoke me — So softly and so gently shook my arm. The dew that settled on my nose refreshed me. It’s richness to awake without alarm. I took a gentle step toward the tree there; Of course I first popped the sleep from my joints. And now I can Read More …
The mute page
Herewith, the mute page the silent ink, the dumb pixels, devious soundless shapes, making so much noise. Yes, loud! The boom of mountains exploding, reverberations that bring pain to your ears, cause your shoulders to shudder, your teeth to shatter and crack! Then what? The plunge to a cottony hush? A whisper, faint perhaps but solid Read More …
Book Review: “The Secret Chord” by Geraldine Brooks
In this largely chronological story of the life of King David, Brooks clearly aims to write a book that is historically plausible, true to the biblical events and interesting to any contemporary audience. She largely succeeds on all three levels, so why am I not more enraptured by the book? David’s tale is certainly one Read More …
Encounter
I never hear them howl. In the movies, their mournful yodel fills the night. In the suburbs, we know them only when our bichons go missing from the back yard. Her I see on a gray mid-morning while out for a walk with Rose, a real dog, 35 pounds of meat packed tight as a sausage in Read More …