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…

Edgar Grayson had discovered an effective technique for gauging whether a gentleman whose eyes had met his at the club was interested in further interaction. He would stand up before making his goodbyes to whomever he was talking, signaling that he was soon to leave. Once he got on the…

How I would remake “My Policeman.” My Policeman does not deserve some of the negative reviews it has received (particularly those knocking Harry Styles’ perfectly good performance as the titular character, Tom), but it does fall far short of the movie it could have been. …

Paul Samuel Dolman is the author of the bestselling “Hitchhiking with Larry David,” and has hosted his singular “What Matters Most” podcast for nine years. When he asked me to be on after having read “Ink from the Pen: A Prison Memoir”, I immediately checked out his previous guests, and…

In 1981, the AIDS epidemic began, and I was living in ground zero, New York City. I had come out at a very young and precocious 16, and had enjoyed an extremely hedonistic life when I went to college at NYU — lots of drinking and sleeping around, all while…