Home
Latest Posts
Click title to read full posts
It was a beautiful day: That’s the first thing that anyone who experienced Sept. 11, 2001, will tell you about it. It was a beautiful day, what the pilots call “severe clear.” It had to be, because the terrorists who used those planes to bomb the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and who were foiled in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, didn’t really know how to fly that well. So the weather had to be good, “a seamless sky,” as I later titled one of my novels, whose centerpiece takes place on that day.
How best to remember it, 25 years later? At first, I thought I would write about the day itself and all that I had witnessed. But lover of history though I am, I realized that I had done that before and had no desire to do so again. Instead, I would rather focus here on 9/11/2026 and the future.
In his “Third Law of Motion” (1687), Isaac Newton observed that every action has an equal, opposite reaction.
In some cases, this produces a self-fulfilling prophecy. For more than a decade now, we’ve been hearing from the right and in particular the far right about the “radical left,” the “lunatic left,” the Democratic Socialists, the Communists, Antifa and all the other boogeymen who are going to destroy our country.
Be careful what you wish for. You might not only get it. You may very well create it.
What makes a great fictional character?
Hint: It doesn’t take a great work of literature or a wonderful human being.
Scarlett O’Hara — the Southern belle at the heart of Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With the Wind” — may be as self-centered as they come. But her refusal to accept defeat — no, nor none of her kinfolk, as she famously vows — in the face of the Civil War grabs you by the throat, holds you and won’t let you go.
In 1976, Anne Rice’s “Interview With the Vampire” — inspired by her grief over the loss of her daughter, nicknamed Claudia, to childhood leukemia — introduced us to another indomitable spirit. Over the course of the 13-volume “The Vampire Chronicles,” the French-born, 18th-century vampire Lestat de Lioncourt would earn a place in the pantheons of Gothic and gay literature as well as pop culture.
On May 4, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in Manhattan inaugurated its new Costume Art galleries in the space once occupied by The Met’s late, lamented book and gift shop. (The shop, relocating to the lower level, will open next summer.)
This tells you everything you need to know about American culture in the digital age: We are a visual society, and I don’t mean that in the sense of deconstructing a Van Gogh. I mean that in the sense of the iPhone, TikTok and Instagram, here’s an influencer with a fabulous piece of Moissanite jewelry; here’s a recipe for scrumptious blueberry muffins; here’s a dress that looks gold in one light and blue in another, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Read more…
As we approach the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence — marking the official birthday of the United States of America Saturday, July 4 — I keep coming back to the title of Fairfield University’s yearlong cultural programming on the subject, “America 250: The Promise and Paradox.”
On the one hand, many have said they are in no mood to celebrate. They point to the Iran War, the harsh treatment of migrants, the coopting of civil liberties and the loss of a standard of living despite the soaring stock market. Even the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision to uphold birthright citizenship and President Donald J. Trump’s redesign of Washington, D.C. strike them as losses. (In this I’m reminded of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and the need not to let others rob you of your joy.)
On the other hand, the U.S.’ co-hosting of the World Cup has been a smashing success, with foreign visitors praising the hospitality, culture and food of rural, suburban and urban areas from sea to shining sea. America is a big country, these marveling posters say — big in size, big in portions and big in heart.
What is going on here?