New Rebecca on Netflix Misses Hitchcock
Posted by under
“Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” Those nine words, written by Daphne du Maurier in 1937, are among the most recognizable first lines of fiction in the twentieth century. Pithy and provocative, they set the misty tone of Rebecca, the gothic classic which, to date, has sold more than three million copies. It was the […]
Continue Reading
Contrasting Kennedy-Nixon with Trump-Biden
Posted by under
Billed as the most important presidential debate since Kennedy-Nixon, the recent Trump-Biden showdown came off like a poorly staged re-creation of the “Thrilla in Manilla.” Actually, the Ali bout with Frazier was more aesthetically satisfying. Over 73 million television viewers watched the President and former Vice President carpet-bomb what was left of civility in American political discourse. Showmanship […]
Continue Reading
The Traveling Cremains of Dorothy Parker
Posted by under
Fifty-three years after her death, Dorothy Parker’s cremains have just been buried in their forever home at Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York. This protracted ordeal began on June 7, 1967 when Parker died from a heart attack in her Manhattan hotel suite. The wry author and wisecracking mainstay of the famed Algonquin Round Table […]
Continue Reading
Michelangelo and the Tale of the Empty Tomb
Posted by under
“Tombs are clothes of the dead,” R. Buckminster Fuller said. “A grave is a plain suit, while an expensive monument is one with embroidery.” There are many examples of heavy-duty embroidery: –The Taj Mahal in Agra, India, a mausoleum which is the final resting spot for Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his fourth wife, Mumtaz Mahal. –The Lenin […]
Continue Reading
Viktor Frankl: Find Meaning to Survive Covid-19
Posted by under
Viktor Frankl was faced with the most consequential decision of his life. He was in a classic double-bind: any option he selected would produce human death, perhaps his own. It was 1942 in Vienna, Austria. What could have been peak years in Frankl’s career as a psychiatrist and neurologist had been thwarted when the Nazis […]
Continue Reading