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Tag Archives: democracy
Dolly Would
A long layover, a Dolly Parton rabbit hole, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young, and one uncomfortable question: how much of our happiness are we willing to hand over to politics?
Dolly had a pretty good answer Continue reading
Posted in Humor / satire, opinion, personal essay, Politics and Society, Trump Opposition
Tagged After the Gold Rush, Aging, American culture, brazil, country-music, democracy, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Happiness, life, Linda Ronstadt, music, Neil Young, personal essay, politics, travel, writing
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The Ted Lasso Way
Six years ago, when everything felt broken, a fictional football coach showed up with a yellow sign that said BELIEVE.
This week, watching Washington turn grievance into theater yet again, I found myself thinking about Ted Lasso, Anthony Fauci, optimism, and one line that feels especially useful right now:
“Don’t fight back. Fight forward.”
New piece: The Ted Lasso Way Continue reading
Posted in covid, Humor / satire, opinion, personal essay, Politics and Society, Trump cuts, Trump Opposition
Tagged American politics, Anthony Fauci, covid, democracy, Hope, life, Midterm Elections, politics, Rand Paul, Ted Lasso, writing
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What We Do In The Shadows: The White House Edition
I wasn’t looking for vampires. They found me—first while I was trapped in Staten Island traffic, then in Washington, where one especially needy specimen has turned the entire country into his emotional-support animal.
A little tale about What We Do in the Shadows, Truth Social, and the exhausting experience of being governed by a man who feeds on grievance, attention and whatever joy America still has left. Continue reading
The Discombobulator in Chief
The man currently residing in the White House announced this week that the U.S. used a secret weapon when we attacked Venezuela. He called it the “discombulator.” He said he wasn’t allowed to talk about it — which meant, of … Continue reading
Eighty-Six Years Ago, My Father Found Home
Today marks the eighty-sixth anniversary of my father’s arrival in the United States. In our family we treated the date like a small holiday. Maybe it didn’t have the sparkle of Hanukkah, Christmas, or the cluster of December birthdays in … Continue reading
Trump: Dementia, Felon, or Huckster? The Sanity-Saving Game for Dozy Don’s Daily Circus
I used to be a news junkie. It was a habit I inherited straight from my parents. My father would practically read the ink off the New York Times every morning—not every article, maybe, but every section. It was how … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged American politics, civic life, commentary, culture, current events, democracy, essays, humor, media culture, modern politics, news fatigue, op-ed, opinion, political commentary, politics, satire, trump, Trump era
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We Have Forgotten: A Minor Memorandum on the 87th Anniversary of Kristallnacht.
For the better part of the last twenty years, on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, I have published my father’s “A Minor Memorandum to My Children on the Fiftieth Anniversary of Kristallnacht: November 9 and 10, 1938.” He wrote it for … Continue reading
Not America’s Mayor
Rudy Giuliani was once called “America’s Mayor.”
It was a fine title. Grand, flattering, patriotic—and, as it turned out, issued before anyone bothered to read the fine print.
On September 11, 2001, he was my mayor, and in that terrible moment he gave New Yorkers something we desperately needed: steadiness, visibility and hope.
Twenty-five years later, history has had time to clear the smoke.
My latest: Not America’s Mayor. Continue reading →