My fascination with Afghanistan"especially the area now called Nuristan but originally Kafiristan"was first sparked by watching The Man Who Would Be King at Grauman's Chinese Theatre back in 1975. The film brought to my attention the ...
California must be the most geographically diverse state in the Union. From Mount Shasta to Death Valley, from Big Sur to Yosemite, we have everything. If you"re homesick for Kansas, we can even offer the Central Valley. But all of this ...
All of the chatter about the euro obscures another important news item out of the mother continent: the reaction in Europe and the United States to the new Hungarian Constitution which took effect January 1. The brainchild of the ruling conservative ...
Downton Abbey"s popularity in the United States comes as little shock to those who remember the early 1970s" Upstairs, Downstairs craze. In a word, the show's popularity is fueled by nostalgia. That word came to mind again a few days ago ...
A restaurant called Taboo is one my favorite haunts in one of my favorite American cities, Palm Beach, FL. After years of occasional visits, I noticed I was inevitably ushered into the same section. When a local throwaway newspaper featured "A ...
Slaving and whaling dominated New England shipping prior to the Civil War. When the slave trade became illegal in 1808, fewer profits rolled into Yankee coffers. As slave-trade revenues decreased, abolitionist fervor in New England increased. To ...
The election season is upon us. The Iowa Caucus and New Hampshire Primary solemnly consecrated the opening of this long, sad circus. Until November we will endure the quadrennial ritual of seeing men of questionable ability and ethics accuse each ...
The New Year literally blazed into Los Angeles with dozens of fires set over several days. One of the worst arson attacks ever, it sent Angelenos scurrying for their garden hoses. As conflagrations broke out under cars and spread to nearby ...
This year crawls toward its doom while 2012 waits to unleash new horrors upon us. Here in California, we enjoyed the first year of rule by our resuscitated governor, who has learned to his chagrin that the 1970s are indeed over—although his ...
Here in the LA area, as in the rest of California and across the globe, the secular Christmas season (what we Western Christians call “Advent” and the Easterners name “Nativity Fast”) is in full swing. The Hollywood Christmas Parade duly ...
Hollywood would not be Hollywood without recurring scandals. Tinseltown always struggles to remain relevant, and in light of the Penn State affair, she has once again managed to keep up with mainstream American life. From Congress on down through ...
The latest flap over a Benetton ad campaign is far from the first in that notoriously tasteless company’s history. Obama is shown kissing the President of China, French chief of State Nicolas Sarkozy liplocks with German Kanzlerin Angela ...
