A word in a Palm Beach Post editorial last week sent me to the dictionary. The word was staunching, its base being, of course, staunch. Staunching was used as a verb form (gerund): “It is a good step toward staunching the distrustful whispers that continue to dog those good law-enforcement officers …” “No no no!” […]
Mona Charen Pundits like Mona Charen are not writing on behalf of their readers or their country. Their dissertations are guided by partisan ideology, whether or not the positions they champion are beneficial to their audience. In this, they are no different than politicians. A good example is what right-wing, syndicated columnist Charen wrote the […]
An ancillary benefit from doing book signings is the opportunity to meet the most interesting people. I’ve been signing my novel Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died on weekends at the artisanal market in Manalapan. It’s a small, upscale community near the ocean, just south of South Palm Beach. The market is […]
President Trump It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is a 1963 comedy film with a title that describes the United States today – except that it ain’t funny. We are being led by a man whose direction often turns on a dime, and nobody except his diehard followers knows where he’s heading next. […]
Prayer for the Pres It would seem that the “Christian” evangelical leaders of this country are working hard to dissuade anyone of conscience from joining their fold. The reason Christian is in quotes is that these leaders’ actions are antithetical to everything which Christ stood for. How in the name of God, whom they invoke […]
Kai Ryssdal Kai Ryssdal, host of Marketplace on National Public Radio, was interviewing James Patterson Monday evening when I tuned in, missing most of what he was opining vis a vis books and the part Amazon has played in the decline of bookstores. The celebrated author, mainly of thrillers but lately of children’s books, […]
Mona Charen Syndicated columnist Mona Charen, a hard-core conservative, is to be congratulated for condemning Republicans for their reticence in speaking out against President Trump’s comments following the racist violence in Charlottesville, Va. But she almost contradicted her criticism with a preceding remark, saying “the left’s febrile imagination” was at play in liberals’ accusations that […]
The You Docs The following is a blog post that I published a year ago. It is every bit as relevant today as it was then. The other day, I read a syndicated newspaper column by The You Docs, Drs. Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, calling on people to avoid saturated fat and consume […]
Before my novel Murder in Palm Beach: The Homicide That Never Died was published, the outside editor for the publisher evaluated my work in six categories. She said I was a good story teller and praised me in five of them, but found fault in the sixth: adverbs. Too many of them, specifically of the […]
E.J. Dionne Jr. Perhaps the most insightful take on the character of Donald Trump that I’ve read was delivered by E.J. Dionne Jr., syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, a couple of days before Hurricane Irma hit South Florida. It packed a wallop and blew me away—the column, that is (I survived the ’cane […]