Last Saturday Ginny and I marked (almost) forty years of wedded bliss with our friends and loved ones at Trattoria 160 in Pleasantville. Front row: Dave Jensen, Ginny, me, Cara Malanowski, Molly Malanowski. Top row: Paul Lindstrom, Anne Lindstrom, Cathy Gallagher, Tim Hart, Susan Schmidt, Greg Schmidt and Shawn Kelly.
The Washington Independent Review of Books likes Commander Will Cushing! In this witty, well-written biography, writes reviewer Grayson Clary, an unknown Union sailor finally gets his due. “Historians, Southern-sympathizing or otherwise, have long marshaled heroic profiles to defend the honor of the Confederate states: Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, P.G.T. Beauregard, J.E.B. Stuart, the Grey …
In its current auction, Ray Haradin Toys of Yesteryear, a Pittsburgh outfit, is offering a 60-piece toy set depicting the Sack of Troy. The set was made by Heyde, the German toy maker that was based in Dresden. Founded in 1872, Heyde was destroyed during the firebombing of 1945. I don’t know when this set …
Momentarily, anyway, after left-winger Carl Hagelin of the New York Rangers tied the score with a nice goal in the second period of Game 4 of the Rangers’ first round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thanks to my friend Paul Lindstrom (yes, that’s us, silhouetted against the rink), we got to sit in his company’s …
Jim DeMint, the radical right-wing former senator from South Carolina and current Heritage Foundation head appeared on a program called “Vocal Point with Jerry Newcombe of Truth In Action Ministries” in early April, where he insisted that “no liberal is going to win a debate that big government freed the slaves.” Instead, DeMint credited the …
Dave Jensen and I saw Phil Lesh and Friends at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester last night. Pretty good show, undermined by a gabby crowd that kept yakking whenever the band turned mellow, jazzy or trippy. Lesh, the bassist for the Grateful Dead, was accompanied by John Kadlecik, Jeff Chimenti, Joe Russo, a fabulous …
The Oscars will be presented tomorrow night, and right now smart money for Best Picture is on Gravity, an engrossing and technically advanced film about one of the oldest plots in the book, that of the marooned person who is running out of time and resources. It’s a fine film, very well directed, featuring two …
Rob Ford has been thrown out of a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game for being drunk and belligerent. He groped a female politician at a fund-raiser for a Jewish community group, and was asked to stop coaching a high school football team after having a violent confrontation with one of the players. He has admitted …
Among this year’s projects, coffee table books for The New York Times, Life and Time, as well as The Book of Levon. All four titles are available in print or electronically from Amazon, except The Book of Levon, which is available in print from lulu.com Trat you rafmily, treat your froends, treat yourself.