Paul McCartney: The Life, by Philip Norman — Little, Brown and Company. 2016 “The Cute One”? That’s how Philip Norman saw the Beatles’ Paul McCartney for many years. John Lennon was the brilliant, witty, edgy musical genius who was “three…
The Mulatto Messiah, drunk with power over the numerous presidential edicts he’s issued which the spineless Republican-led Congress has done absolutely nothing about, has now jumped with both feet into the current brouhaha about transgendered people — whatever THAT means…
Jacob Schutte, a lonely bachelor farmer in the early 1900s, goes each Sunday to a different church to partake of the “dinner on the ground” offered to any with the 25 cents it costs to eat. On this particular Sunday,…
This short story is based on my memories of an uncle of mine; on a reminiscence by my dad about his growing-up years, just at the time this story takes place; and on my memories of my own life. But…
OK, national GOP leaders: Everyone got their pistol loaded and ready? Good! Now, everybody aim their weapons down toward the floor. One, two, three, FIRE! BOOM! That exercise is called, “Shooting yourself in the foot.” And that’s just what the…
Benjamin Franklin, one of our most well-beloved Founding Fathers, never served as president of the United States. He was born too early (1706) so that by the time the first president (George Washington) was elected, Franklin was a frail 83…
The title of the movie was almost poetic: “Song of the South.” The actors were charming and believable — especially James Baskett as Uncle Remus, who became one of the best-known characters in American literature, partly via the 1946 Disney…
In just about two months — April 23, to be exact — the world will observe a double anniversary of the greatest literary man to ever live on this earth. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, on April 23,…
If you follow social media, or keep up with politics, as I do, you’re probably angry, frustrated, depressed, and wishing something — ANYTHING — would happen to break this cycle we seem to be stuck in. We’ve had our happy,…
This old year, 2015, has been a real doozy, hasn’t it? Most of us will feel a relief when it ends at midnight tonight. Well, at least, I will. But I suspect many, many would agree with me. The Islamic…
This Christmas story will, I hope, show that sometimes, during the magic of the Yuletide season, people at odds with one another due to religious doctrine or other factors, can learn to “love thy neighbor,” as the Bible directs. ——…
Are there really such things as “guardian angels” — people, or “beings,” who suddenly appear, mysteriously, at just the right place and time, to save human beings who have become too timid and cowardly to save themselves? If you’ve ever…
The election clock is moving on, with less than a year now before we go to the polls and elect a new president of the United States. In this year of the outsider, the non-politician (witness Donald Trump, Dr. Ben…
Heard about the three atheists who walk into a bar? The first yells, “God damn, I’m thirsty! Give me a beer!” The second cries, “Jesus Christ! Where the hell is the bartender?” The third looks at them, dismayed, and says,…
It was 100 years ago this past March — 1915 — that “The Birth Of A Nation” was released to American theaters. It was a landmark film on the American Civil War — or the War Between the States; and…
Did you ever suddenly, unexpectedly, run into some good friends that you hadn’t seen since grade school? And find out that all the things you liked about them, things they had said and done when you were all young, came…
“There’s nothing we can do about it!” I think that’s one of the most contemptible sentences in the English language. And nowadays, we here it from everybody, starting with the politicians in Washington, the governors in our state capitals, our…
ROCKABILLY! It was the transition American popular music, between rhythm ‘n’ blues, country and western, and the melding of the two into the rock ‘n’ roll of the 1950s. Its heyday didn’t last a long time — but at its…
It’s one year since Michael Brown got himself killed (by being extremely stupid) in Ferguson, Missouri, and of course the black agitators in that city used that anniversary as an excuse to mount more riotous “protests” about the incident. “Black…
OK: Do you think King Louis XIV could defeat Donald Trump for the Republican nomination for president in the 2016 election campaign? Too bad the Sun King is otherwise occupied (he’s been dead now for 300 years). He and Trump…
He was first “The Oklahoma Yodeling Cowboy;” then simply, “The Singing Cowboy.” And later, “America’s Favorite Cowboy.” And finally, just “The Cowboy.” His theme song, “Back in the Saddle Again,” was probably the best known one of any of those…
Now that the Charleston, South Carolina, church massacre is two weeks in the past, along with the wailing, gnashing of teeth, and making lists of what things should be “banned” because of it, let’s step back and take a calmer…
Whither goest thou, Madison, Indiana, my hometown? You were the biggest city in Indiana in the 1850s; you were the pork-packing capital of the world. The most-decorated American veteran of World War I was born near here, and lived here…
Anyone nowadays who knows who Ty Cobb was, knows that he was eternally angry, periodically drunk, a viciously dirty baserunner who deliberately spiked infielders at every opportunity; and — here’s the REALLY REVOLTING part: He was a “racist”! Oh, horrors!…
Michelle Obama, the nation’s First Lady, who by that fact should be the most respected woman in America, has given us yet another reason why she is viewed by many of us as just another angry, resentful, loud-mouthed black woman.…
The other day I heard an old gospel song that was totally new to me. It was called “Gone Home.” It got my mind and memory to working — because it’s about those we loved and cherished, who have died…
OK, all you Hoosier haters out there! No, I don’t mean US Hoosiers, who have been the target of unlimited, unfair and vicious attacks over the Religious Freedom Restoration Act which kicked up a major kerfuffle on the political Left.…
Did ye ever hear the one about the Irishman, Paddy, who was taking an ocean cruise, be dad? While they was down in the South Pacific, the ship sprung a big leak and sank, with the passengers pilin’ into the…
Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of the State of Israel, received the welcome of a conquering hero when he addressed the U.S. Congress Tuesday. And, in my opinion, he richly deserved it. Netanyahu spoke to a packed House chamber, and the…
The fat guy and the thin guy. “The boys.” Stan and Ollie. L & H. They were tagged with a number of nicknames over the years, were Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy, their original names. But those still living…
Everybody who likes paying taxes, yell, “Two bits, four bits, six bits a dollar, all for big government, stand up and holler!” That’s funny; I don’t hear anybody. OK, we’re all pretty much agreed: Nobody likes having to cough up…
Another Muslim massacre, another round of “expressions of outrage” about the latest raghead murders, these of (unarmed) journalists who had had the unforgivable gall to poke fun at the Muslims’ humorless and rigid views about their prophet Mohammed, and their…
Christmas is coming! Less than two weeks away, and the usual hustle, bustle, and turmoil is hard upon us! What would we do; what would the WORLD do, without Christmas? It’s the piece de resistance of all holidays, the best…