Birthdays are one of life’s enigmas.  Even the word is less accurate than it could be, since it refers to the anniversary of one’s entry into the world, not to the actual entry itself.  The analogy would be to celebrate one’s wedding anniversary by calling it one’s wedding day, which is, of course, absurd: one […]

            My wife and I attended one of those birthday parties for a one-year old this past weekend.  We are best friends with the infant’s paternal grandmother.    These affairs always verge on the purely comical in a certain respect.  To start with, the little one is completely oblivious to the significance of the occasion.  […]

            As one who happily voted for Barack Obama last fall and who is now perplexed, if not downright disappointed, by his less-than-aggressive advocacy of a truly liberal agenda, I readily admit to being mystified by the negative attacks from the right against the nation’s president.               Depending on the forum and the speaker, […]

            I readily admit to having had my share of teary-eyed moments over the past weekend, as I watched the many tributes that were bestowed on the late Ted Kennedy.  He was, over the course of his long career in the Senate, all the things those who spoke of him said he was: a champion […]