This has been a bad year for grand restaurants in the three- to four-star range and the clang of their closing doors raises the question — is the whole gastro-frenzy that stirred into life in…
Posts published in “Essays”
A lot of Americans are in physical pain. A lot of Americans are addicted to prescription pain medications. The two populations overlap, but are not the same. And therein lies a huge and growing problem.…
Recently, I received the initiative from the California Democratic Party which I believe is spearheaded by Governor Brown. The initiative is called, “The Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012.” It raises revenues…
Yesterday brought an email from a friend with the subject heading Data Plague, with a link to an article from the New York Times about Big Data, a hot topic in the world of computer science and technology.
Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society. — Thomas (“Mental illness is a myth”) Szasz “…lunatics from the hospital up the highway, psycho-ceramics, the cracked pots of [society].” — Ken Kesey,…
What a pitiful spectacle. Ozzie Guillen, the hard-partying eccentric who manages the Florida Marlins, sits weeping in the harsh glare of TV lights, forced by his bosses to recant his praise for Fidel Castro. He’s…
In the introduction to his 1965 book The Making of the English Working Class, English social historian E.P. Thompson described his motivation as being to rescue “from the enormous condescension of posterity” the “lower orders”…