I lived in the San Fernando Valley for nearly 40 years. Two years ago, I married a Gal from my Hometown, Youngstown, Ohio. I introduce LuAnn as ‘My First Wife’ … because she is! People are surprised, as we were, that we found each other… especially when they hear that LuAnn was living in Cleveland, […]
More Viewpoint Stories
Forget about the results of the national election, there’s more important business at hand. We all need to rejoice over the passage of Measure M, which won with a whopping 70 percent of the vote (okay, 69.82%). At the macro-level, it could create more than 450,000 jobs in the county, fueled by $860 million a […]
REPRINTED FROM APRIL 15, 2012 April 15th. Quite an important date in American history. Yes yes yes, I know, it’s tax day. But that’s not it. As I write this, on April 15th, 2012, it is 100 years to the day since the Titanic sank in the North Atlantic. One hundred years ago exactly. Pretty […]
Have any of you been following all the trades and free agent signings in football lately? Does your head hurt too? Seriously. This time of year there are so many players switching teams that not only can’t you keep track of it, but frankly it gets a little comical. I texted my son the other […]
Yes, Steven Spielberg’s “LINCOLN” is a triumph, even though it didn’t triumph at last week’s Academy Awards. “ARGO” won best picture. That’s fine. But “LINCOLN” did pull down the least-suspenseful Academy Award in history. Specifically, the great Daniel Day-Lewis won the Oscar for his dazzling portrayal of our iconic 16th president. Well earned, well done. […]
A few of you might have read my column last week wrapping up the Super Bowl. It wasn’t bad. But it wasn’t great either. Certainly not my best work. And it’s not because I suddenly forgot how to write. It’s more that I had failed to grasp the true, underlying significance of this year’s Super […]
The Baltimore Ravens won the Super Bowl on Sunday. Good for them. And yes, it was a very exciting game. One of the best Super Bowls ever. Long pass plays, a 108-yard kick return, fake field goals, even a power outage. Final score, 34-31. Great theater. But did the best team win? Were the Ravens […]
Please don’t overreact to what I’m about to say. I’m not suicidal. But in some ways, I think I’ve lived too long. I’ve lived long enough to see many of the great movies I saw 20 or 30 or even 40 years ago remade, and the remake is almost never half as good. Just something […]
Peyton Manning. Winston Churchill wudda loved the guy. England’s World War Two prime minister once described Russia as “a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma”. Indeed. But he just as easily could have been describing the enduring riddle that is Peyton Manning. (well, if the portly PM hadn’t died about fifty years ago, […]
Just the other day, the redoubtable Pietro Benoit (who just happens to be the publisher of this fine electronic fishwrap) suggested I do an end-of-the-year column on the best sports stories of 2012. Good idea, I said. Which I have amended, slightly, to focusing on just one. Anyway, here’s how I employed the wonderful tool […]