The reason we have an endless stream of interscholastic sports from elementary age on up is that such competition supposedly “builds character.” Perhaps. But many parents and coaches seem far more interested in having a…
Posts published in “from the archives…”
Last week, we discussed the Supes aversion to priorities. I cited three examples (Board approval of thousands of dollars of retroactive pay raises for four county officials, $117 million worth of damaged, neglected roads, and…
My grandmother loved language; she loved words and, having been blessed with a classic education that included Latin and Greek as well as French, she spent much of her life reading with a handy etymological…
The most successful saga in postwar popular culture got off to a conscientious start after breakfast on a tropical morning in Jamaica early in 1952. Ian Fleming, forty-three years old and ten weeks away from…
It was right around 2:56pm PST, and the Post Office closes — or, at any rate, bars new entrants — promptly at 3 on Saturdays. There were perhaps 40 folks fidgeting in line; five vacant…
Tip-skimming has surfaced in Boston, and there can’t be a tipper in America who, on hearing the news, doesn’t exclaim, “The greedy bastards!” In a lawsuit filed March 7 in Suffolk Superior Court, five former…
This morning, as I drove into Boonville for my cup of tea at Glad's, most of the vineyards had their sprinklers going full blast protecting the vines from frost. The water, of course, is robbed…
So, why is baseball wonderful? Certainly, not because George Will and George W. pretend to be fans. Not on account of any of the hackneyed reasons (absence of time-clock; actual strategy and thinking involved). Sure,…