My dog looks happy here, but he’s actually trembling, and extremely anxious. The first firecrackers have just gone off in the neighbor’s yard. He freaks out, scurries up to me, crawls into the hole I’m digging for a viburnum. A…
I watched Brazil-France with a Brazilian who had just flown here, at the bar of a packed restaurant in Little Brazil, W. 46th in New York. For more than an hour he was pure joy to be with. He strongarmed…
The videotape of a Palestinian girl running helplessly around a Gaza beach after the rest of her family was annihilated in an unclaimed explosion got the world’s attention three weeks ago. Horror like this is rarely captured so freshly (even…
The Supreme Court’s stunning rebuke of Bush’s war-trials procedure makes you wonder in what other ways the war on terrorism has transformed our values. Here is another thing to reflect on: In a full-page ad in tomorrow’s Times that questions…
On Charlie Rose, that is. The outgoing Harvard President was on for an hour, rebroadcast just now. It was interesting to see him up close at last. Some observations: Summers seems a business executive by temperament. He’s too tan and…
Germany-Argentina. Two great teams, playing a great competition. And what does it come down to in the end, the farce of penalty kicks! And one of the best players in the stadium, Lionel Messif, has never taken the field. I…
Did I really pick the Netherlands for the World Cup semifinals? Boy, was I wrong. I emailed my high school pal, Greg McNair, who is a jazz guitarist living in the Netherlands. Here is Greg’s explanation: As far as our…
Maybe you saw Ayaan Hirsi Ali on 60 Minutes. She is articulate and appealling, the Somali-born member of the Dutch Parliament who came close to losing her citizenship over errors on her asylum application of 1992. Hirsi Ali is world-famous…
Last night on Charlie Rose, the great Henry Siegman said that he had met recently with Hamas leaders in Beirut. He related Hamas’s aims. Hamas is prepared to explicitly recognize the state of Israel. But it cannot do so without…