Years ago, a well-known Spanish journalist had the habit of telling us over his microphones: “Flattery weakens you.” There is a very extensive doctrine installed within the collective imagination that denigrates praise. The only praise that is dished out generously…
It’s dark now and for Los Angeles, it’s damned cold. I feel a chill. Is it COVID? Let us pray. Here’s a prayer for right now: Dear Lord, Thank you for allowing me to be born in the United States…
Thanksgiving is a time for reflecting on all those things for which we are grateful. It seems particularly important now at the end of the second year featuring a pandemic and unprecedented restrictions. This past year also brought many abuses…
Thursday Yes, it’s Thanksgiving again, and I am totally terrified. All of my sources of livelihood are either obsolete or closed down. Gov. Newsom has shut down movie and TV production, not entirely, but enough. Commercials are rarely shooting. I…
Here, as the decade ends, is my list of what I am most grateful for, in my own words. Think of it as a sabbatical from complaining. 1.) That I am married to the world’s most wonderful woman, a genuine…
Dear College Students, Happy Thanksgiving! You may be tired of stories about Pilgrims and Puritans, so consider instead a word you’ve heard and probably spoken about: privilege. You may have even accused someone of being privileged. But do you really…
Sunday The weather here in LA is perfect. Low humidity. No wind. No clouds. Seventy-two degrees. I lay in bed for hours, then went swimming and I thought, as I endlessly do, how grateful I am. I am a Jew….
Maybe you do not need another reason to be thankful, but here’s one that you may not have considered — you’re a conservative. (If you’re not, my condolences.) There are numerous blessings that result from conservatism. For example, being a…
Saturday Wow. What a day I had yesterday. Just awful stomach ache. Could it have been from corned beef? Could it have been from watching Maxine Waters on TV? Ms. Waters and I go back to the school busing struggle…