Reading books year-round is life-enhancing, but reading in summertime seems especially to be savored. Here are some non-fiction selections. The First Kennedys: The Humble Roots of an American Dynasty by Neal Thompson will fascinate anyone intrigued by the immigrant experience, Irish roots, old-time urban ward bosses and Boston politics in the late 19th-early 20th centuries. …
Summer sweetness
There's nothing like the distractions of summer to make one forget (almost) the news. And, however guilty I may feel about not persevering as the "eat your spinach" part of your weekly communications, I have no intention of writing about him who shall not be named.....at least not today......or about any of the other depressing …
What hath the Supreme Court wrought?
On this 247th celebration of our country's birth, any American who believes in the progress of civilization must be rattling in the throes of PTSD. Over the last two years, the Supreme Court has managed to wipe out half a century of gains in achieving several foundational promises of our Constitution. We are shocked and …
How we celebrate July 4th
Picnics, parades, fireworks, and concerts - all wonderfully traditional ways to celebrate the birth of our country and the values embraced in our Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. In an article published in today's highly respected Commonwealth Magazine, James H. Barron (name ring a bell?) argues that one particular aspect to July 4th celebrations …
SCOTUS decision: a big whew!
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against GOP legislators in North Carolina, who had claimed that they should have unreviewable powers to set the rules for their state's federal elections. The six-to-three decision (with Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito dissenting) affirms our fundamental principle of checks and balances. This decision has implications far beyond …
GOP Trump defense: performative art or stupidity?
How can someone be an ostrich, a worm, a sheep, a jackal and a dodo all at the same time? It's no zoological mystery. Trump supporters in Congress - the House particularly - do it every day, even those who criticize him privately. So too do most of the other Republican Presidential candidates, most of …
Continue reading GOP Trump defense: performative art or stupidity?
Books for late spring, pt. 4- fiction, the last tranche for now
As my followers can tell, I do love reading, which served me well during my recovery. But this finishes my current reviews. Happily, I have returned to normal life, seeing friends, going to restaurants, trying to outwit the oversexed rabbits in my garden, salving wounds inflicted by the Bruins and Celtics, keeping hopes alive with …
Continue reading Books for late spring, pt. 4- fiction, the last tranche for now
Licht’s out, and it’s a good thing
Recently defenestrated Chris Licht is now the former CNN chair and CEO. He had been successful in his previous roles, including show-running the Stephen Colbert show, but he was in over his head - running one of the the three major cable news networks. Licht's initial goal was right on target: avoid the hyper-partisanship of …
Books for late spring, pt. 3- more fiction
Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is a fascinating story about a highly regarded Israeli neurosurgeon, Eitan Green, transferred from Tel Aviv to Beersheba because of hospital politics. Driving his SUV at high speed in the desert late one night, he hits an Eritrean immigrant walking by the side of the road, causing fatal head injuries. …
Climate change a personal issue
Global warming is no longer an abstract theory. Forget about the hockey-stick-shaped graph correlating the rapid rise in temperature with the fossil fuel-based increase in carbon emission in recent years. The data have real-life implications for every single one of us, and we all need to see it that way. That was the dire message …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 