Henry Allingham and Harry Patch, two of the three surviving British veterans of the First World War and the last two who saw action in the trenches of the Western front, died within a week of one another last month. Allingham…
On the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, it’s tempting to emulate William F. Buckley, who was asked how he would describe the event. “With silence,” Buckley said. This defining human achievement soon had the effect of making such awe…
For devotees of an always-troubled sport, Alexis Arguello‘s death on July 1 at 57 brought back memories of the elegant boxing master of the 1970s and early 1980s. It also reminded me of the conversation I had with him at…
World War One: A Short History By Norman Stone (Basic Books, 240 pages, $25) The pacifist’s preferred term for any war is “senseless,” but more troubled observers would be hard-pressed to apply such a judgment across the board. Even seemingly…
Recently I began noticing on tabloid covers and website homepages frequent stories involving two people named Jon and Kate. I don’t know who they are. The brief headlines and teasers I’ve seen don’t identify them, as in, “Former Olympians Jon…
You guys have your guy thing,” my sister often says, “I’m always out of it.” She means that, in our male-heavy family—four boys and lonely her— the men tend to stick together. Not that there was much choice. My father’s…
I’ve never much liked St. Patrick’s Day. As time passed, I’ve never much liked it even less. Before the last few years, my main objections were not just about public order and drunken rowdiness, but also that our country hardly…
According to the Labor Department, the economy lost 651,000 jobs in February as unemployment crossed the 8 percent mark, the highest since 1983. Amid all the debate about economic policy, the only consensus seems to be that things are going…
Another baseball season approaches, and the national pastime continues to demonstrate its genius for self-inflicted wounds. The latest steroid scandal involved superstar Alex Rodriguez and only lengthened the shadow cast by past revelations about Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, and others….