The first snow always startles you. It makes everything look better. In the suburbs it gives a layer of cottony brightness to trees and fences and lawns; it covers the tricycle left in the driveway, turning its little aluminum frame into an abstract sculpture that says: “See how quickly yesterday turns into today”. In farm […]
Peggy Noonan Quotes
There’s a small but telling scene in Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down” that contains some dialogue that reverberates, at least for me. In the spirit of Samuel Johnson, who said man needs more often to be reminded than instructed, I offer it to all, including myself, who might benefit from its message. “Colonel: Get into […]
The Irish have a certain affinity for death, an interest in talking about it and thinking about it. I mean of course the real Irish, not these big, beefy blonds of no known ethnic origin, but Irish-Americans who still bear the mark of their ancestral pains and habits. They used to say the Irish like […]
My generation, faced as it grew with a choice between religious belief and existential despair, chose marijuana. Now we are in our Cabernet stage.
We adults forget what we do to children’s imaginations when we go through one of our national seizures on an issue. A dozen years ago, Hollywood fell in love with the environmental issue and put enviro messages in all their shows. The messages made their way into the funnies and magazines, and parents went to […]
In a president, character is everything. A president doesn’t have to be brilliant… He doesn’t have to be clever; you can hire clever… You can hire pragmatic, and you can buy and bring in policy wonks. But you can’t buy courage and decency, you can’t rent a strong moral sense. A president must bring those […]
