I had occasion today to watch the famous scene in the movie Philadelphia where Tom Hanks listens to Maria Callas sing the “La Mamma Morta” aria from Umberto Giordano’s opera Andrea Chénier. The character Hanks plays — “Andrew Beckett” — is dying of AIDS, pulling his IV pole around the room, as he encounters Callas … Read more
So I turn 52 years old this week. And my father turns 80. Our birthdays are only two days apart, so for many years our tradition has been to celebrate our birthdays jointly. We drive to be together on the long Memorial Day weekend in late May and have a birthday party where our whole … Read more
Portrait of an Activist Banging Head Against the Wall: Those dedicated to overturning Roe v. Wade have enacted a whole series of legislative acts at the state level to try and make life difficult for women seeking to get an abortion. Mandatory waiting periods before an abortion, having to read scripts to the patient, or … Read more
So today is my last match of this junior team tennis season. Actually we are to play two matches at two different locations, to finish the season before the deadline — and I am exhausted. All the text messages arranging practices and setting up matches with the other coaches from the other clubs, and then … Read more
“The boundaries of privacy are in dispute and its future is in doubt. Citizens, politicians and business leaders are asking if societies are making the wisest tradeoffs.” New York Times The New York Times last month launched a whole series of pieces on the danger of privacy going the way of the Dodo — with … Read more
So I changed my health insurance last year so that this year I could have “PPO” rather than “HMO” health insurance. It has been worth it, even having to spend some money. As a result, I saw a quality physical therapist in January who took the time to train me about a longstanding issue I … Read more
I am cautious when it comes to social ventures. I am slow to join, and I am slow to quit. Maybe too much so on both ends. Sometime around 2004 my high school students semi-dragged me onto the Myspace social media platform and then onto Facebook. I did not see the point, but I went … Read more
I did not receive an inferior college education in the years I spent in the University of California system. I read the important books on a subject and heard experts in the field deliver lectures. There were usually breakout discussion sections led by graduate students. Then we wrote essays and research papers on the material. … Read more
“Fake news is cheap to produce. Genuine journalism is expensive.” Toomas Hendrik “In America the President reigns for four years, and Journalism governs forever and ever.” Oscar Wilde March 12, 2019 Dear Journalists of the Present and the Future, Before I talk about the role of your chosen vocation — “journalism” — in America today, … Read more
Today in class I finished showing the 1980 movie “The Elephant Man” to my students. We are reading “Catcher in the Rye” and focusing on how alienated, troubled persons do or don’t get the help they need by finding those that can help them, and then making allies of them and getting the help they … Read more
It happened in 1974 or 1975, and I would have been 7 or 8 years of age. I was in suburban Milwaukee — in Waukesha County somewhere near the city of Elm Grove, Wisconsin to be exact. The exact details of when and where are blurry, but the events of that day remain clear in … Read more
I spent the Christmas holidays visiting family in the Bay Area. In doing so I had the opportunity to speak at length with two young men, one 30 and the other 35 years of age. They spoke to me about “their dreams for the future,” as they sought to reconcile their hopes for making money … Read more
In my last essay, I talked about the “fraying” of American society, and how loosening social mores resulted in a tiny number of lonely, disturbed young men choosing to perform acts which were taboo in earlier eras of American history. I was talking about high publicity mass shootings. But as tragic, senseless, and dramatic such … Read more
Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, the only mass murderers who will be named in this essay, with the exception of Mohammad Atta. I read about the recent shooting in Pittsburgh, and I had the same sick feeling in my gut I had when I previously read about the Las Vegas shooting, the Manchester Ariana Grande … Read more
Every weekday morning it is the same. I race out the door no later than 7:30 am to take my daughters to school. I drop Julia off for her bus at 7:39, and then deposit Elizabeth no later than 7:43 at her school. I am in my own classroom standing tall and ready for students … Read more
“I will not allow Trump to make me crazy.” It is almost two years since Donald Trump was elected President of the United States. I am still so deeply embarrassed and ashamed of this fact. I am against Trump in most aspects of his presidency, and I am a confirmed centrist — far from a … Read more
Oh, how I have a love/hate relationship with AYSO soccer! So, gentle reader, you may well ask what does “AYSO” stand for? Officially, it stands for American Youth Soccer Organization, and it has been around forever. I played it back in 1976. But I and other parents refer to it as “All Your Saturdays Occupied.” … Read more
ON RAISING DAUGHTERS Two summers ago when she was preparing to start fourth grade, I read Romeo and Juliet with my oldest daughter, Julia. It took a long time to read each line and to examine closely the Elizabethan era prose/verse, and to discuss characterization and what Shakespeare was trying to do at that point … Read more
My father and stepmother pose for the camera in Heisler Park, Laguna Beach on August 3rd, 2018. My father’s mother suffered a heart attack when she was 77. She survived it and was hospitalized, and all her children rushed to her bedside for support. A few weeks later, she had another heart attack and was gone. … Read more
Hello, year 51! Yes, today I turn 51 years of age. It is an anti-climactic day in light of last year: turning 50 years of age is momentous, turning 51 is just another year. 55 will be more of a marker, and my 60th birthday will be a huge landmark — not to mention turning … Read more
After my daughters went to sleep around nine last night I enjoyed my free hour before my own bedtime by sitting down in front of my flat screen TV to enjoy my Bose Soundbar 300 and Acoustimass (subwoofer) wireless sound system. The setup is new, and I am still seeing what it can do. Wow! … Read more
I read recently an excellent article by Jesmyn Ward about a book I teach each year, The Great Gatsby. It really struck home with respect to how the essayist suggests that the literary character Jay Gatsby resonates strongly for young people who see limitless opportunities as to what they can do with their life. I … Read more
Protesters at the Gaza Strip border with Israel in May 2018. CHAOS IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AGAIN It was approximately March of 1999 and I was on the steps on the backside of Congress listening to Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) speak to my students and myself. He was our local representative in Congress, and he had … Read more
Last weekend I was at the PAC-12 tennis championships in Ojai, CA with my daughter and father where we saw the UCLA men’s team defeat USC. As we watched these incredible student athletes compete, my father asked me the following: “Do you regret the decision to stop playing tennis, Richard? You could perhaps have been one of … Read more
Last weekend there was published a photo taken at the funeral reception for Barbara Bush, the matriarch of the Bush family who died last Tuesday on April 17, 2018 at the age of 92, having been married to George WH Bush for 73 years. Americans from across the political spectrum (except for the far left) … Read more
‘Men have become the tools of their tools.” Henry David Thoreau So I have authored eight blog posts since I stopped posting to Twitter three months ago, and pretty much gave up all social media. Those eight essays cost me me many hours and much sweat to write. But they have also been enormously gratifying … Read more
AN EDUCATED WORKFORCE FOR THE “INFORMATION AGE” UNITED STATES “The U.S. economy’s largest and fastest growing sectors—business services, finance, healthcare and education—have little room for high school educated workers,” notes a 2015 report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce. “Access to education is pretty much the arbiter of middle-class status,” said Anthony P. … Read more
March 27, 2018 I can hardly believe it. After some twenty five years of abjuring the National Rifle Association and considering them to be extremists who were more trouble than they were worth, I am about to join them. I am going to join the NRA. I am going to give them my money. I … Read more
Two weeks ago, in a burst of curiosity, I performed some fifteen hours of research on the current opioid epidemic that rages across the United States. Some 63,000 Americans died from overdosing on opioids in 2017, and every pundit seems to add that this means “more Americans died in 2017 from drug overdoses than died … Read more
The other day I caught my youngest daughter reading in her loft bed at night in the dark at 11:00 p.m. I was more than a bit angry, as I saw her bloodshot eyes peering out at me from her bed; she would be comatose the next morning, short of sleep, I thought to myself. … Read more