The Cycle of Vengeance Must End Posts and comments from Jewish friends have been lamenting a sense of abandonment by progressives like me who seem to be addressing Palestinian pain and ignoring — according to this narrative — Jewish pain. …

Why We Can’t Have Nothing Nice It’s clear to me that evolution — as beautiful and complex and mysterious as it is — is fatally flawed when it comes to human beings. It started with the great leap that occurred when homo erectus discovered how to make fires and cook…

The older I get, the more I realize what a completely zigzaggy and very melodramatic life I’ve led next to so many of my peers. I don’t say that in a way to suggest I’ve had more adventurous fun than they had, not remotely, it’s just a clear-eyed recognition that…

It continually brings me up short to realize I am in the same age range, often even much older, than these conservative white men rampaging to turn this country back to 1953. I was in high school in 1973 when Roe vs Wade legalized abortion. Yes, in suburban NY, but…

First, let me say that I really love Candice Renoir (Amazon Prime/Acorn). Which also means I tend to read the subtitles with an especially critical eye. I noticed a drop in quality this most current fifth season, and decided to specifically note them for Episode Three. First off, the timing…

For International Women’s Day (March 8) I wanted to share one aspect of my mother’s life — when she first went back to working outside the home. In the years prior, she had given private French lessons in our dining room, but in 1968, she became a translator at Washington…

You’d think that more thinking would go into the use of foreign languages in films and TV shows in an era of media globalization, but there is an epidemic of illogic in so many streaming series that it can severely mar the viewing experience of anyone, like me, who has…

I dipped my toe in the water of Madonna last week, mostly not identifying with a) having a strong opinion about her either way; b) finding it silly to have a strong opinion about the strong opinion of others. [*spoiler alert* I changed my mind.] …

I realized there was a story that didn’t make it into Ink from the Pen: A Prison Memoir, probably because I didn’t want to alarm my mother or sisters. (The book is made up of letters I wrote home during my incarceration.) In Delano, there was a “beat-down” of a…