The Emmys: Or, Where the Red Carpet Leads

    I am cynical to the max regarding the world of celebrity, and TV’s Emmys take no edge from my sarcasm. It is my missionary duty to convince others that it will rot mind and soul.     Emmys night is the time to see all the TV actors and shows you didn’t know existed. Or [...]

Other Memories for Memorial Day

    People die every day, and there is a scramble to give meaning to their lives.    When the young die in war there are dignified rituals to acclaim that they were brave, courageous and sacrificed themselves for us all. Drums roll, guns roar and loved ones clasp folded flags as proof of the family’s [...]

A Wedding and a Funeral

    We know there’s a god, or the death of Osama bin Laden would have come the day before the royal wedding. Imagine then the shrieking and screaming from all who still believe in fairy princes and princesses, were the best news about the world’s worst terrorist allowed to infringe on Happy Times in Britain’s [...]

Bored for 83 Years

Many of us weren’t born when this nonsense started–meaning, the Academy Awards and the slavish adoration of people with otherwise messed-up lives who have a talent for appearing normal, even heroic, on a silver screen. This bears saying again: the obsession with celebrity is our  way of re-creating a royalty that was briefly sacrificed by [...]

What “War Against Christmas”?

For those who love wars, there’s always room for one more, and now it’s said that one’s been declared against Christmas by those who don’t believe in or celebrate it. I thought the latter were merely stating their own preferences, but Fox News, eager to push people into a fight, has made this a priority, [...]

Breaking the Political Fever with Humor

If ever the American electorate went mad, this is the moment. People have scoured the past for prior insanity but came up short. The 1960s were close, considering Vietnam, the Nixon era and Watergate, not to forget the Generation Gap, a renewal of the Civil War’s “father against son, brother against brother”–not to mention the [...]

Once More for the Oscars

The Oscars 2010 You could swear that watching one night of the Oscars is to see a lifetime of them. Celebrity, we know, is America’s way of re-creating royalty: somewhere in our DNA we miss what we had when we were unborn and British, but they don’t run it all up the flagpole as often [...]

Tiger, Johnny and the Spirit of Giving

The saga of Tiger Woods, following its initial assault on our senses, “grew legs” as we say, bringing to mind however that a potential monetary settlement of his woes is not unknown among celebrities, including other wildly popular ones–like Johnny Carson. Nothing more prompts generosity than personal trouble. People who usually won’t spring a dime [...]

Tiger by the Tail

A TIGER BY THE TAIL The holiday season of 2009 began rudely with revelations of Tiger Wood’s secret life, prompting thoughts on the meaning of celebrity and on who ought to be whose heroes. To have a tiger by the tail is to have a problem: whether to hang on or let go. Neither is [...]

Letterman-Polanski Syndrome

Dave and Roman got unwanted headlines due to one’s recent, and the other’s past, misbehaviors. It all launched a national review of the social and workplace obligations of those who “hold power” over others who are underage or in their employ. Thankfully, in a month or so Tiger Woods would rescue them from all the [...]