My last prediction about the World Cup was better than half-right. True, I got only two of the four teams in the semisÂI said Germany, Italy, Spain, NetherlandsÂbut my coup was the declaration that it would be all-Europe. Even the…
The King of Tonga turned 88 today. Four years ago the New Zealand papers had him dying, still he keeps going. I bring him up because I wrote a book about the murder of a Peace Corps volunteer by another…
Have you watched Ray Suarez of the NewsHour from Mexico City? He seems a different person entirely from the grim professional at the desk back in Virginia, or wherever they be. He’s impassioned, fuerte, and alive. He seems thrilled to…
A few weeks before the invasion of Iraq, Melissa Block of National Public Radio interviewed Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz about what war would mean for Iraq. It’s a good interview, worth reviewing. Wolfowitz is of course now at the…
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…
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…
When I asked a friend who lives in the Netherlands who he’s for, he emailed me to say Brazil, then said a few words about Germany: GermanyÂwho’s for Germany outside of Germany? Although I must admit that the social attitudes…