An Italian-American Writer & Poet with a Yankee Outsider Perspective
The advance publicity does not do this exhibit justice: it is a major exhibit of Rembrandt’s works from American collections, not just a comparison of a few “authentic” masterworks with many that have come under suspicion. We saw almost … Continued
Among the top ten novels I listen to on disc over and over, Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding gives me the most sustained pleasure. I admire Welty’s long short stories and much shorter novel, “The Optimist’s Daughter,” which won the Pulitzer … Continued
English is full of such wonderful sound-alike, but mean-different words. And I pounce on them occasionally when like these–waste/waist–they hit a gong in my head. ITEM: In my walks around the neighborhood–beautiful evenings, balmy as milk, and scented with phlox–I … Continued
Proud cat, but dead, to give his name to our entire furry tribe, Archie is the only one who ever traveled by car to the North Shore. He’s the only one better known (or regarded) up and down the avenue … Continued
Margotlog: Hemingway’s Mr. Death Hemingway courted death all his adult life, from severe wounds as an 18-yera-old ambulance driver in World War I, Italy, through his work as a journalist in the Spanish Civil War, to heroic journalism, winning … Continued
Sometimes in early morning, lines from long-ago read poems crop up–plants grow most at night! Now, it’s Alexander Pope, with his dressed advantage. “True wit is nature to advantage dressed./ What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.” Essay … Continued
When Shakespeare set his play about male bonding and verbal horseplay in Verona, he may have tipped his hat at a feature of Roman comedy–the sparring of slaves/servants as they outwit their masters. Verona was a Roman city as its … Continued
What do we care? Muscling tight corners in our SUVs. Legislators gleefully firing climate scientists at state college. Playing with our hand-helds while the Rockies go up in flames. We’re hanging by a thread. Just imagine it. Thumbing our … Continued
One of my favorite movie moments is all about “we’re having a heat wave”–In the Seven Year Itch, Marilyn (the quintessential Marilyn, one of the greatest of all time) stands over an exhaust grate. It’s New York, circa 1955–air pours … Continued
Don’t get me wrong: I enjoy all kinds of electronic media, but to experience the essence of non-oral communication, give me paper. Books, drawings, letters, scribbles, notebooks, lists. The actual art works I’ve made have all depended on paper. These … Continued