Sir Elton John did an extraordinary thing last week. He praised President George W. Bush in an interview with the ABC News/Yahoo! Power Players series, reminding us in the process that there are still statesmen in the world. Cross-ideological kindnesses are so rare these days that John’s remarks were downright jolting. John is a political progressive. Bush is a […]
Read the rest of this entry »Author Archive
Quote of the Opening Ceremonies, Bob Costas
On the North Koreans marching into Olympic Stadium (paraphrasing): “Of course the greatest athlete ever in North Korea is none other than the former Dear Leader Kim Jong Il who, according to his official bio, hit eleven holes in one in golf — not over the course of his career, mind you, but in his […]
Read the rest of this entry »Olympic Insults
How many Irishmen does it take to screw in a lightbulb? I’d tell you, but I still harbor Olympic ambitions. (I don’t care what anyone says; competitive grilled-cheese eating is a sport.) Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou should have shown similar restraint. She should have known that you can’t say anything out of the political […]
Read the rest of this entry »Satan Shows His Face Again
On a frigid Valentine’s Day morning in 1977, when I was an eighth-grade student at Pelham Memorial High School, a man named Fred Cowan walked into the Neptune Moving Co. warehouse in neighboring New Rochelle and began shooting up the place. He was armed with a semiautomatic assault rifle, two .45-caliber pistols, two 9 mm […]
Read the rest of this entry »86 Saturday Mail for Crissake
The human instinct to preserve life — to protect the next generation from harm — is one of mankind’s most redeeming qualities. We have seen instances of it throughout history, where one generation sacrifices so that another can flourish, sometimes in the starkest terms. In the mid 1990s, during a famine that became known as […]
Read the rest of this entry »Three Cheers for Ralph Lauren
Three cheers for Ralph Lauren and the U.S. Olympic Committee. They just gave the country a potent dose of reality. When ordering this year’s national team uniforms for the July 27 opening ceremonies in London , they did what every smart athletic organization and clothing designer would do — they ordered them from China. Why? Because things made in China cost […]
Read the rest of this entry »Snake Oil PR (Update from Author)
Fascinating read in the New York Post today about a PR executive gone bad, gone tell-all author. The tactics this guy used to gain publicity for his projects would get him instantly fired from any PR firm in which I have ever worked. I refuse to believe that this is becoming the norm in the […]
Read the rest of this entry »Obama’s Got Ungatz
There’s a great New York Italian expression called “ungatz.” If you’ve got ungatz, you’ve got nothing — you’re whistling Dixie. Jewish New York will know this as “bupkis.” Ungatz is the perfect word to use in a poker game when staring down another player. “This guy’s betting like he’s Johnny Chan,” you might say, “but I’m […]
Read the rest of this entry »News from a Five-Year-Old
Completely out of the blue: “Vag-ina! Va-gina! Va-gina and Pedis make one big happy family!” Our school seems to be doing an excellent job — or that little rat at camp. Am I off the hook?
Read the rest of this entry »The Rolling Stones Turn 50
http://youtu.be/RrL_LZVbJ1M The Guardian has a story out today on the 50th Anniversary of The Rolling Stones’ first live performance. The story includes a link to this old newsreel video. It’s too good. You just have to watch it. All of it. It wasn’t just The Beatles that buckled the girls’ knees. http://youtu.be/CYwbkqGmeKw And 10 years later (1972). […]
Read the rest of this entry »