Military Service? Impossible!
When I taught English in Russia in the late 1990’s, my main place of employment was the Tolyatti Pedagogical Institute,…
Blue Skies
I didn’t get back up into the hills again for several months. The repeated storms of January and February had…
The Dead Branch
I took a walk up into the hills yesterday. It was a leaden sunless day, but the temperature had risen…
Fear and Trembling
It’s that time of year again, Black History Month, the month when I once again try to explain to nine…
Don’t Send Her Back
The defining chant of Donald Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign is almost certainly going to be “send her back.”
The Wall I Knew
Want to watch a video of me reading this blog? Go to my You Tube Channel. On a cold Sunday…
My Cousin in California
On November 9th, two weeks after my cousin in Pittsburgh, in her post-shooting gloom, bowed out of all social media,…
Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
If you’d asked me before the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings how I felt about them, I’d probably have told you I…
Merit Pay, Anyone?
I wasn’t going to weigh in on this because, well, everyone else has, and what am I going to say…
Wallis, This One’s for You
Finally, some good news for a change. Amidst the debacle of “tax reform” and what appears to be rampant sexual…
Persistence
In our elementary school, we start teaching children about character traits in the third grade. We teach them to recognize…
To The Barricade
I never marched in a demonstration before yesterday. I don’t like crowds much, or noise, or commotion. I’m a stay-at-home-with-a-book…
2017: Brace For Impact
At the beginning of the Second World War in Europe, there was a period of time, eight months and one…
Election Week 2016
Last week didn’t begin well. On Monday afternoon, we had to hospitalize our cat, Socrates. He’d been battling pancreatitis at…
Where You Can Put Your Putin
No one could love Russia more than I do. You have to love a country where the cabbie taking you home…
A Little History
They say if you don’t know your history, you’re doomed to repeat it and this certainly seems to be what’s…
A Cruel June
It goes on. Last Sunday morning we woke up to read about yet another mentally ill individual who went out…
De Ja Vu All Over Again
There it was again. That feeling. The feeling that I hadn’t felt in a long time, but that I still…
Madness
And so it began yesterday upon the frozen fields of Iowa, that great democratic act of choosing. The Iowans have…
Lists
As another year draws to its close and the next one edges near, there seems to be in both the…
O Canada
A flash of light rent the October sky, lasted a few short moments, and then vanished as quickly as it…
The Bitter Pill
When I was a university student of Russian History in the mid 1980’s, the Iron Curtain was still drawn tightly…
Sevastapol
I’ve always found that when I want to understand something that’s happening in Russia, it helps to hit the books….
Native Son
It’s been a very bad week. First of all, Obama, he’s my guy, but he’s really made a mess of…
Hopscotch
You remember the 1980 movie “Hopscotch,” don’t you? Walter Matthau played a rogue CIA agent who was publishing a book…
Nineteen Eighty Four
I know I should feel outraged, violated, sullied. When the whistle-blower Edward Snowden this last week let it be known…
Remember Gorbachev?
I was reading an article about Gorbachev the other day. Gorbachev, remember him? I’m embarrassed to say that until I…
Eastward Ho!
Back when I was in high school in the late seventies and early eighties, back in the waning days of…
Russian Reformers Old and New
The demands of the Russian reformers seemed reasonable enough to me. They wanted the Russian government to stop being so…
Juneteenth
Juneteenth is an African-American holiday officially celebrated in 41 states of the United States. It commemorates the final abolition of…
Don’t Go to Gibraltar!
“Whatever you do, don’t go to Gibraltar.” This was what our friends and neighbors down on the Costa del Sol…
Blame the Germans
They’ve been muttering about them in Greece, and in Spain, in Portugal and in Italy. All the countries of Europe…
Putin Party Politics
Why did Putin win the Russian elections? He won due to election fraud. Well, yes, there was election fraud, buses…
Haavisto Loses, Finland Wins
Back in January, the Finns had an election, too. It was the first round of their presidential election. The Finns,…
