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Marlene Adler Marks

Marlene Adler Marks

First Person – God Laughs?

My girlfriend \”E\” was the first to declare what others had been observing for a while. \”God sure is having a good laugh,\” she said. \”You write a column called \’A Woman\’s Voice.\’ And yet you have no voice\”. The irony had crossed my mind.

Oh So Sorry

I\’m sorry I haven\’t eaten more hot dogs.

Saturday is Selichot, the time when the whole Jewish world sings with Connie Francis, \”I\’m sorry,\” and vows to do better next time. Many of us are focused on the wrongs we\’ve done to others, or even to God.

The Way We Were

I\’ve been reconsidering what the 1973 schmaltz-filled classic, "The Way We Were," means to younger women.

Friends

One glorious sunny day, my girlfriend "C" and I share a seaside restaurant table with a married couple, call them Harry and Sylvia.

Merit and Mazel

I\’ll be 54 this weekend. Not for me the modesty of hidden age. I\’ll take my years, gladly, as I\’m given them.

God Laughs?

I haven\’t had a speaking voice in more than a month. I whisper, a frog croaking through the bulrushes.

Living Through Chemistry

The ancient rabbis practiced a relatively simple form of medicine: cabbage for sustenance, beets for healing.

Fears After El Al

We must know each other, as accurately as possible. If you can\’t invite your local imam into your living room, then go down to your local mosque, yourself, and bring a group from your synagogue with you.

Minority Report

Steven Spielberg\’s new film, "Minority Report," is not exactly a deep take on the problems of "knowing," but since you\’ll probably see it anyway, here\’s where it brought me.
The film, based on a science fiction story by Philip K. Dick, argues that the future can indeed be known. Moreover, our security depends upon finding a Pinchas, a zealot who knows what crimes are being committed, and personally stops them. So anxious are we to hire this Pinchas, this future-knower, that we would sacrifice our freedoms for him.
It is 2054 in a dark, police-state Washington, D.C, all murder has been foretold by three mermaid-type creatures called precogs, so named because they have pre-cognition. The crimes are prerecorded in the future, then replayed in real time, at which point they are interrupted and prevented by a precrime squad headed by John Anderton (Tom Cruise), the very Pinchas we are seeking. Pretty neat.

Talk to Me

I owe my life\’s work to Ann Landers. And, of course, her sister, Dear Abby. Dr. Rose Franzblau. And Dr. Joyce Brothers.

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