Books That Moved Me – Part 4
This is the fourth edition of Books That Moved Me—a tradition dating back to 2016—in which I’ll list the fiction and nonfiction books I’ve liked most since my Books 3 post in January 2023. As in the past, virtually all the books I’ve read have been recommended by a...
Excerpts from Finding Ruby
A number of people have asked why they haven’t been receiving my blog posts lately (most of you have just been silently relieved). The answer is that for the past few years I’ve been working on a book. It’s about my two grandfathers - Rubin (“Ruby”) Schechter and...
Books 3 – Friends Write Back
Apparently ignited by the plea for “help” in my recent Books 3 post, friends have sent a trove of recommendations that could keep me occupied with great fiction and nonfiction books for years. As I looked over the recommendations--some contained in the Comments to the...
Books That Moved Me–#3: Help Wanted!
This is the third, now sort-of triennial, edition of Books that Moved Me. This one includes the novels and non-fiction books that I’ve liked the most since I posted Books 2 in 2020. As in the past, I’ve read virtually all the books on this list based on...
Contemplating the Penultimate Chapter
I have a relatively small working vocabulary, and this is probably the first time in my seventy years that I’ve used the word “penultimate.” Google helped me spell it. But I couldn’t think of a better way to describe what’s occasionally been on my mind lately as I’ve...
The Communist Precedent for Republicans Buying the Stop the Steal Myth
Many people have been amazed by polls indicating almost 70 percent of Republicans believe the lie promulgated by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was infected by massive fraud and stolen by Joe Biden, despite the complete lack of evidence and the abundant evidence...
Playing the Covid Odds
We’re all shooting craps against Covid these days--playing the odds as we feel our way to deciding what to do (and not to do), and struggle to get back to some semblance of life as we knew it without taking dumb risks. Which of the many longed-for activities we’ve...
Music II—Inching Up The Foothills Of Jazz
This is an account of how, at the age of 61, I found myself whining with frustration, afraid of humiliating myself, and then fired by my piano teacher—all part of a journey that's nevertheless been a highlight of these twilight years. After traipsing around the Dobbs...
Mask Up and Vote in Person
Call me stupid, as some of you undoubtedly will, given that I have the trifecta: “advanced” age, a compromised immune system, and a chronic lung condition. But I’m planning to vote in person, and hope that others who can possibly do so will too, especially in...
My Life in Music – Part l
It began on Christmas in Dobbs Ferry, New York when I was about six, which would have been 1958. I woke my sister Debbie before dawn to get a jump on opening presents. Ripping away the wrapping paper, I discovered a book around the size of a comic book: the Trapp...