Tuesday night's debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President (and convicted felon) Donald Trump put a smile on the face of anyone who has ever felt degraded or dismissed as weak, inconsequential or otherwise put down by a bully. Harris was "presidential." Not only did she stand up to Trump verbally, but she …
More fiction to stretch the last days of summer
The nights are cool, but the days are warm enough to still qualify as summer. So here are two novels to tempt you. Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon is an historically inspired and riveting novel about Martha Ballard, a smart and hardy woman who, as a real-life midwife and medical professional, delivered nearly a thousand …
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Kamala Harris first interview: a successful snoozer
Kamala Harris easily achieved her minimalist goal of responding to those wondering whether she could do an unscripted interview, without the benefit of a teleprompter, the hoopla of the national convention, backup pop stars, cascading balloons, and upbeat Beyonce music. On Thursday night, she did that unscripted interview. She was smooth, engaging, responsive thematically to …
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Festive DNC ends. Will Dems stay united?
Kamala Harris may have started her speech Thursday night as the little girl inspired by her mother to be anything she wanted to be, urged on by mommy to "do something" to challenge injustice, but the Democratic nominee ended her speech in warrior mode. No frills or sequins or even summer colors for her. Her …
Notes from first night at DNC
I have covered Republican and Democratic national conventions from New York to Kansas City, but I’ve never seen a first night as electric as that which I viewed on television last evening. I did not take notes, so the following are the impressions that “have legs.” Especially moving were the personal accounts of men …
Getting to first for a brave female sports writer
Locker Room Talk: One Woman’s Struggle to Get Inside by Melissa Ludtke is a sports writer’s impressive account of her 1978 lawsuit against Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who had banned female reporters from interviewing baseball players in the locker room before and after major league games. An art history major in college, athletic Ludtke was …
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Did Red Sox go too easy on Duran?
I thought the Boston Red Sox were well past their sordid corporate history of bigotry and ugly fans' and players' misbehavior. New ownership since 2002 has largely been a breath of fresh air. Gone are the overt racist ways of owner Tom Yawkey, who notably turned down opportunities to hire Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays and …
Kamala Harris scores with VP pick
I was happier than I thought I'd be yesterday morning when Kamala Harris announced her selection of Tim Walz as her running mate. That quiet sense of elation rose to celebration last evening with their first joint appearance at an exuberant rally in Philadelphia. Several weeks of compare and contrast, sorting out the pros and …
Still more summer fiction
The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl is a confection, set in the 1980’s in Paris. Stella, a 20-something copy editor in New York, leads a highly routinized life, the regularity of which is comforting to her. She is estranged from her mother, Celia, who has never expressed love of her. Nor has Celia ever told …
Fanatics and vigilantes: two books with red flags
American Mother by Collum McCann is an as-told-to account by Diane Foley of the 2014 death of her son, freelance American journalist James W. Foley. McCann, the author of Apeirogon and Let the Great World Spin, is a master storyteller, tells the first and last chapters of this riveting book in the third person, but …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 