Retro-A-Rama

The over-the-top tackiness of Caesars Palace has come to the Trump White House with the emphasis on Caesar.
The gaudy, gold ornaments that embellish walls, ceiling mantles, tables,  coasters, and frankly anything that can be gilded are a garish display never seen before in the Oval Office. It is one more likely to be seen in the Tsar’s palace, which made it the perfect backdrop to introduce…

With butterflies in my stomach, last Saturday I sat in the darkened theatre at the Cinema Arts Centre, a storied theatre in Huntington, Long Island, waiting for my short, deeply personal film “Perpetual” to be screened.
I sank into the soft, cushioned seats, as I had hundreds of times before, staring ahead at the screen. The same large screen that had been filled by Meryl Streep, Emma Stone, and…

Once again, I will read from the wine-stained Haggadahs I have used since I was 3 years old, when the Seder table was filled with parents, grandparents, great uncles, great Aunts, and cousins.
The table is so much smaller this year, but the world’s tumult, despair, and pain will fill the room.
May the hostages sit at their family tables for Pesach next year just as we are privileged to do so. We…

In 1936 our government encouraged everyone to join the march and sign up for Social Security, this wonderful safety net that FDR and Uncle Sam put into place to protect us.
Today we march to protect our right to have our well-earned Social Security and keep the Trump government’s hands off.
For those who are able to march today, use your voice and your presence. It has never been more important!

Today I turn seventy, a number Hallmark decrees a milestone based on the number of greeting cards there are.  I’ve moved through all my significant birthdays pretty smoothly.  Thirty was a breeze, and forty was fabulous. Fifty felt empowering and sixty-five, well, I spent that one quietly in lockdown observing the start the of the pandemic.
Age and numbers have never really bothered me.  Except…

If you had to flee your home in an instant, what would be the one object you absolutely had to take with you?
In a recent Zoom with friends, whose lives have been touched by the recent natural catastrophes, I gingerly posed that question. Once we were done commiserating about Trump, we had moved on to other disasters.
Since the devastating wildfires in Los Angeles had shown us that life can turn…

Watch out Jerry Saltz. There’s a new art critic in town, and he’s nasty
Donald Trump who likely hasn’t been inside an art gallery or museum for over half a century – if ever- has gone on a tirade on Truth Social taking an artist to task on her portrait of him that hangs in the Colorado State Capitol.
 

The artist Sarah Boardman has painted a slew of prominent figures including former presidents…

I am now breaking into old childhood piggy banks in search of vintage coins that might be worth money.
This is how terrified I am of losing social security. Not to mention the crashing stock market.

Some of my old hand-blown glass piggy banks offered no way of retrieving the coins except to shatter them with a hammer. Gazing at these sturdy 65-year-old banks with their sweet piglet faces I just…

Continue reading My Proustian Moment

Oh, Canada, we the people of America never wanted this breakup.
Our commitment to Canada was once something unshakeable. True Blue. Literally written in stone.
John F. Kennedy famously defined the nature of the relationship between Canada and the United States in words now etched in stone at the entrance to the US Embassy on Sussex Drive in Ottawa.
“Geography has made us neighbors,” he began.…