America, Travel

Joshua Tree Park, California

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I have puzzled for some time about what attracts many people to a desert landscape. Driving through the Joshua Tree Park, I may have hit upon the answer: for the human eye this ecosystem gives the impression of order and peace. The eye has to look very hard before it finds one creature eating another.  image [Read More]
Drama, Movies

21 Grams

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How do you feel when your heart is failing you, but you don’t know if a donor heart is found in time to save your life? How do you feel when your husband and two little children are killed by an inattentive driver only a few blocks away from home? How do you feel when image [Read More]
Humor, People

“A Joke that has gone too far…”

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Britney Spears, After a Dip Into Marriage, Is Free for Whatever Future May Hold By LOLA OGUNNAIKE Forlorn men around the world can breathe a collective sigh of relief. Britney Spears is one step closer to being available again. Confirming reports that her marriage to a childhood friend early Saturday morning in Las Vegas might not last forever, a [Read More]
Humor, People

Is this a Joke, Ann?

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I have only read Ann Landers colums perhaps five times in my life. The other day on the road, far away home, I came across a real funny one that I want to share. I wonder if Ann ever thought about doing her column live as a form of stand-up comedy. Too bad we cannot [Read More]
Humor, The Best

The World’s ‘Funniest’ Jokes

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New York Times, January 27, 2002 By TOM KUNTZ IF you’re a careful reader of this newspaper, you’re already aware that British scientists have released preliminary results of their search for the world’s funniest joke. Reprinted below is the best-rated joke in their global online survey, which will be followed up with further diligent study. (You may be [Read More]
Humor, Situations

Office Jokes

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I’M ON A COMMITTEE! Oh give me some pity, I’m on a committee, which means that from morning to night, we attend, and amend, and contend, and defend without a conclusion in sight. We confer and concur, we defer and demur, and reiterate all of our thoughts. We revise the agenda with frequent addenda, and consider a load of reports. We compose and propose, [Read More]
Books, Non-Fiction

Reports from Berlin, 1920-33

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A couple of months ago (March 2003) I started reading Joseph Roth’s newpaper columns about life in Berlin in the 1920s.  He turns out to be a master of short essays on social life. I became so enamored with his powerfully perceptive prose that I started to read his novels. Savoy is a fine story image [Read More]
Books, Fiction

The Story of Job

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Roth has the ability to create suspense even though we are reading about the "Life of a Simple" man. The central theme of the novel is the role of destiny in human life that has become surrounded by the products of science and technology. The tale begins with a prophecy in prerevolutionary Russia and image [Read More]