As if the Kansas City Chiefs needed it, yet another one of the players for their back-to-back Super Bowl championship team has become a household name. Until he was given the opportunity to speak to graduating students at a conservative college in Kansas, Harrison Butker was perhaps best known as a kicker who’d occasionally bail … Read more
I missed the Vietnam War era on my college campus by a few years. I didn’t have anyone like Hanoi Jane nor Abbie Hoffman. But I did have Mike and Hugo. Mike and Hugo were the closest things to activists on my frigid campus. Mike also happened to have been elected student body president the … Read more
One of the more common derogatory acronyms for the University of Southern California is the University of Spoiled Children. Per US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, the average annual cost for a student’s tuition, room and board and books is approxmiately $82,500, which gets reduced to an average of about $40,000 after need-based aid. That’s for … Read more
Yesterday was the 54th anniversary of Earth Day, an event that these days all but goes unnoticed except by those truly as invested in the cause as the 20 million who took to the streets to make their views on the environmental crisis known. New York City Mayor John Lindsay even consented to give them … Read more
I’ve always had a soft spot for National Public Radio, even though I admit I rarely listen to it these days. But long before cable and satellite options proliferated NPR, much like its television counterpart PBS, provided a welcome alternative voice and a listening environment that I often equated to a zen garden. My small … Read more
The bar for the term “trial of the century” is indeed a high one. Prior to January, 1995, historians could debate whether that title was reserved for the ones involving Adolf Eichmann, the kidnappers of Charles Lindbergh’s infant son, or even the one involving one Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, which prior to this one was perhaps … Read more
I trudged home yesterday exhausted from a full day of work, exacerbated by slogging through downtown LA traffic in the midst of a downpour, ready to plop down and find some distraction. Said downpour was actually delaying the Dodger game, so as I was fumbling through the channels and streaming GUIs Roomie noticed I had … Read more
P.T. Barnum perhaps said it best when he offered up the memorable observation of his circus-hungry audiences: There’s a sucker born every minute. The days of that circus are long gone; sadly, the only circus of consequence that seems to exist these days is the one surrounding politics in America. It has become nearly impossible … Read more
I grew up as a heavy viewer, literally and figuratively, of NBC News. We lived in an area where the CBS over-the-air signal on Channel 2 was often snowy and grainy, so we only watched in prime time when there was a sitcom or drama we HAD to watch (God, my mom LOVED Steve McGarrett … Read more
In the last week, two iconic figures emerged from tunnels. Punxstawney Phil began the week by groggily peering out into the Pennsylvania winter and saying “this will be over in six weeks”. At week’s end, Scranton Joe hurriedly called one of the few press conferences he’s held in recent months to declare that our political … Read more