Press "Enter" to skip to content

Posts published by “Clancy Sigal”

Aristo Fetishism In Downton Abbey

I’m sure we all have better things to do than watch that emotionally involving, spacey-fiction example of Disraeli-era “one nation” Tory-conservative spin, Downton Abbey.

The Doris Lessing I Knew

From her obituaries, and the serious critical assess­ments of her work, I hardly recognize the Doris Lessing I knew. I don’t fault the obit writers (I used to be one) or critics and admirers for…

Single-Payer Works

Obamacare, ACA, health exchanges, bronze silver gold and platinum levels. Oy! It’s complicated! Does it have to be? “Do you really want the state to be your doctor?” the British Medical Association of medical professionals…

Hysteria, Madness & The Forgotten War

Sixty years ago this week the “forgotten war” came to an inconclusive end.  The Korean war was perfectly mistimed for me. On 25 June 1950, the day I graduated from the University of California, Los…

Starving For Change

In the past few days, in the largest prison protest in California’s history, nearly 30,000 inmates have gone on hunger strike in the country’s largest prison system. Such near-insurrections are not unusual in America’s prison-industrial complex.

Hello Baseball, Goodbye Brain

The opening day of the major league baseball season is when I start to live again until October when pro basketball and NFL football take over and the fan in me goes into a long…

The Problem With J. Edgar

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s long time chief, J Edgar Hoover, was in a sense “family” for me. He was a presence, heavy and omniscient, like a bad uncle. In the 1920s, during the infamous…

Princess Margaret’s Knee

The royal razzmatazz over Will and Kate is temporarily over, which I hope gives the loving, handsome couple some breathing space before the Palace's formidably world-class PR machine claws them back into the voracious public…

-