Category: General
My French Odyssey and Ways to Improve Language Skills
Happy New Year 2023 to Friends and Strangers
Coup in Detroit! Rare Van Gogh Exhibit Upstages America’s Coasts
At the end of September, I drove to Detroit to attend a panel discussion featuring two descendants of Vincent van Gogh. Josien van Gogh, Vincent’s great-grandniece, and her daughter, Janne Heling, had come to the Motor City to help kick off a new exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, titled Van Gogh…
A Look at Cancel Culture’s Trashing of a Remarkable Filmmaker
This week I listened to an interview with Meg Smaker, a gutsy yet empathetic filmmaker whose documentary, Jihad Rehab, was initially hailed by numerous film festivals and critics, then condemned and dropped like a hot potato. The claim that the film was Islamaphobic is behind its sudden death sentence. After…
Hidden Treasure: Watercolors from My Father’s College Days
For decades, my parent’s basement was the source of many chuckles, curses, and quandaries, along with considerable consternation. My mother, an only child, and my father, the only surviving child, seemed to have inherited not only their own parents’ belongings but also those of many of their grandparents, aunts, and…
An Unexpected Mourner and Flowers for Mother’s Day
A Brief History of Famous French Fools, Farce, and Fanfare
From the time of ancient kings, people have appreciated humor arising from the behavior and appearance of fools. Throughout history, such characters have taken many forms. Comedic actors have created entertaining personas that reappear in performance after performance. Others adapt idiotic conduct to real-world figures in an attempt to mock…
My French Odyssey and Ways to Improve Language Skills
Happy New Year 2023 to Friends and Strangers
Coup in Detroit! Rare Van Gogh Exhibit Upstages America’s Coasts

At the end of September, I drove to Detroit to attend a panel discussion featuring two descendants of Vincent van Gogh. Josien van Gogh, Vincent’s great-grandniece, and her daughter, Janne Heling, had come to the Motor City to help kick off a new exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, titled Van Gogh…
A Look at Cancel Culture’s Trashing of a Remarkable Filmmaker

This week I listened to an interview with Meg Smaker, a gutsy yet empathetic filmmaker whose documentary, Jihad Rehab, was initially hailed by numerous film festivals and critics, then condemned and dropped like a hot potato. The claim that the film was Islamaphobic is behind its sudden death sentence. After…
Hidden Treasure: Watercolors from My Father’s College Days

For decades, my parent’s basement was the source of many chuckles, curses, and quandaries, along with considerable consternation. My mother, an only child, and my father, the only surviving child, seemed to have inherited not only their own parents’ belongings but also those of many of their grandparents, aunts, and…
An Unexpected Mourner and Flowers for Mother’s Day
A Brief History of Famous French Fools, Farce, and Fanfare

From the time of ancient kings, people have appreciated humor arising from the behavior and appearance of fools. Throughout history, such characters have taken many forms. Comedic actors have created entertaining personas that reappear in performance after performance. Others adapt idiotic conduct to real-world figures in an attempt to mock…