Oliver Stone has a new movie out called South of the Border, which allegedly depicts President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela as some sort of humanitarian. Chavez has invested money in the poor areas of Bolivia, Ecuador, Cuba, and even the United States, but are his motives altruistic? More importantly what has he done for Venezuela? [Read more →]
June 21, 2010
I dream it is the first week of school and I am looking at my first set of papers. I see that one student has turned in two different papers for the same assignment. If this were not suspicious enough, both were printed with the smelly blue ink that used to be used with a stencil in hand-cranked copying machines. I go to the computer to look up this student, but I can’t figure out his game. Whatever else happens, though, I refuse to read two papers.
The most interesting thing about this film is watching these four Saturday Night Live alumni as they hit middle age. SNL gave these young comics a chance to work on rebellious and sometimes edgy comedy and characters. Yet here are these four in the most conventional of comedies. Did writers Adam Sandler and Fred Wolf craft a funny screenplay? Well, if you think jokes about breastfeeding, urine streams, farts and men injuring themselves are side splitting, this is the film for you. The only redeeming thing about this film is the obvious chemistry between the leads. These guys are fun to watch and provide a few laughs. But the script is not that funny and not very interesting. [Read more →]
A friend of mine recently referred to her life as a mountain. Apparently she started climbing it years ago without realizing, then one day looked down and discovered how high up she’d gone. She also discovered that it would be nearly impossible to get down off of this mountain and start the climb up a different mountain. By different, I think she meant the one on which she had assumed she would end up. [Read more →]
On Saturday I was walking with my 7-year-old son in the parking lot of a pool club. On the gravel-grass hill was a small purse, not really a purse but a small vinyl bag with a zipper. It looked a little like a pencil case kids use in school and was brown and had a paisley pattern. It is the sort of thing one brings to a pool when one doesn’t want to bring a pocketbook. My arms were full with pool gear, so I told my son to pick it up. [Read more →]
The Killing of Mindi Quintana presents a scenario we see in the newspapers every day: a murder has occurred, and the press is far more concerned with the murderer than the victim. The accused gets to make his or her case to the press; he turns up on Larry King or Oprah, interviews present them in the best possible light and reporters are willing to kiss up to a killer for a chance at an exclusive or a book deal. Defense attorneys use the media to try their case before the accused ever sets foot in a courtroom and district attorneys use high-profile cases to launch political careers. Lost in all this is the victim; if they are mentioned at all, it is only when some lurid detail from their past is dredged. But what if someone decided they weren’t going to play the game? That’s the case study Jeffrey A. Cohen presents in his first novel. [Read more →]
I know I am not the only person who, upon being intrigued by an idea encountered in a book or during a conversation, finds himself subsequently running into said idea over and over again.
Earlier this year, in Josef Pieper’s The Silence of St. Thomas, I came upon this: “the reality and character of things consist in their being creatively thought by the Creator.” This prompted me to begin thinking of myself as “being creatively thought by the Creator.” Lo and behold, I began running into like notions in the days and weeks that followed.
My last three columns have had to do with looking at the world minus the labels we attach to its contents. [Read more →]
Something is wrong with the NBA. There was a time when I really enjoyed watching professional basketball. The Sixers last won the NBA championship when I was a teenager, and they have had many bad teams over the years since then, but that didn’t stop me from watching. At some point in time, though, the league lost its way. The best evidence I can give you of this is a trade that occurred on Tuesday between the Miami Heat and the Oklahoma City Thunder, just before the NBA Draft. [Read more →]
10. You have a mirror strategically placed on the ceiling so you can watch television over the pile of junk between the couch and the t.v.
9. Your bathroom has hot and cold running roaches
8. Is cheese supposed to make noise?
7. Your Christmas tree is still up – from the Reagan Years
6. You’ve given your dust bunnies names
5. After photos of your home were posted online, you started getting Care packages from Haiti
4. When you open the fridge door, the light makes all the food suddenly stop moving
3. You’ve taken up sculpting, building your sculptures from lint and dust
2. BP Oil executives have officially declared your kitchen/bathroom area ‘unsalvageable’
1. Even Jehovah’s Witnesses won’t come inside
Bob Sullivan’s Top Ten Everything appears every Monday.
Finally summer is officially here, and for me that means that even though its hot in my kitchen, all I want to do is cook! The Greenmarkets are bursting with ripe, local produce…the time to get in touch with your inner Chef is now!!
One thing that a serious home cook needs is a clean and organized refridgerator. When I open that fridge door, I should immediately be inspired by possibilities. I want to see vibrant colors and the beauty of fresh produce. Here is a little snap shot of my fridge today…..
