Art and Politics

An old friend of mine generously provides me with clippings from magazines like The New Yorker and The Atlantic because she knows I don’t subscribe to them but will want to have read parts of them.  She also sends me links to articles from The New York Times for...

Walt Dropo

In Birmingham, Alabama, in my childhood years (the 1940s), there were two professional baseball teams–the Birmingham Barons (all white) and the Black Barons (all black).   These two teams alternated performing at Rickwood Field and I went to games fairly...

“Coming to America”

Often I am very late in coming to know about people or events popular around me.  So it is with Eddie Murphy, though I am happy to learn that we share April 3rd as our birthday.  Of course, I know his name as a comedian of major significance, but comedy is not my...

A Hungry Heart

Like millions of other Americans, I watched a lot of the two memorial services held recently to celebrate the life of Senator John McCain.  As I was witnessing the beautiful service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., I asked myself why I was doing this. ...