Back in Detention Hall
Let us for a moment set aside all political realities. Let us view the 2024 American presidential contest not as [...]
The kiss that roiled
My Italian doctor has decided: This time around, he’ll cheer for Trump. Though his vote of confidence is meaningless, his [...]
Monster or wizard
In the festive weeks leading up to Christmas, I was approached by a number of friends and acquaintances eager [...]
Gaza, the sequel
When Hamas carried out a bloody assault on Israeli citizens just outside Gaza, killing hundreds and taking hostages, veteran cynics [...]
All about war
Israel says war, and so it is. The retaliatory invasion of Gaza has by now become the Sherman’s March of [...]
Runaway truck
My latest cleaning lady is like a heavy-load truck with slashed tires that keeps on coming. She’s Bulgarian by birth, [...]
Buone cose
Language is at its best when it spits at by-now universal idioms. France of another era insisted it would never [...]
“I want to die”
My friend’s line had me by the throat: I want to die. I get it in phone calls and in [...]
Because you can
Since the West went to war to excise its two cancers, Nazism and Communism, its moral compass malfunctioned, jiggered by [...]
On Kissinger
My father roundly disliked Henry Kissinger. Hindsight suggests this was prompted, at least at first, by the young Kissinger's more-than-willing [...]
Misunderstanding General Giáp
Amy Bernstein was over and under and into the moon, and I was, by chance, the only boy within reach [...]