Maybe all the layoffs and buyouts have cut just a little too deeply into the newsroom, or Mr. Zell is purposely dumbing down his newspaper in hopes of making it more profitable
Are we electing a candidate based on his or her ability to lead the country, or are we crowning a king who looks good in pictures and who is above criticism, examination and challenge?
I don\’t think Obama is a bigot or malicious. I think he\’s someone who\’s risen too high too fast, on the merit of some exceptional oratorical skills and some natural charm and charisma, at a time when this nation is hard-pressed to find a person in whom it can put its faith. I think he hasn\’t even had a chance to examine his own loyalties and politics enough to know where he has stood up to now and how he can reconcile his \”base\” — the Louis Farrakhans and the Rev. Wrights of the world — with his new, much wider constituency.
Last Thursday night at LACMA, I was treated to a reading of my own works by the very talented and beautiful actress Bahar Soumekh, and by UC Irvine professor Nasrin Rahimieh. Outside the Bing Theater, rain poured in sheets, and traffic on Wilshire was at a standstill because all the lights had been blown out by the wind and — this being Los Angeles where even the mildest winter storm is dealt with like Armageddon — I was rather astonished that anyone had shown up at all.
Reflections on cooking, life lessons and mothers and daughters.
It\’s 8 p.m. on a Wednesday, and I\’m at the studios of KIRN — a Persian-language AM radio station on Barham Boulevard near Universal Studios. I\’m a guest on a program called \”Live From Hollywood.\”
The Shah of Iran symbolized, with his youth and his seemingly limitless future, the power and grandeur that, we believed, would one day be his — he symbolized for us a life of possibilities, such as we hadn\’t known for centuries.
Somehow, this most blatant form of self-promotion, this venue that, until a couple of hours ago, had looked to me like a literary meat market, has suddenly reminded me of the reason I started writing in the first place: to tell a good story; a story about Jews; a story that in its own small way continues the tale of this people who have had to struggle, in every generation, to ensure that their story doesn\’t end.
I\’m not feeding the homeless, or doing a beach cleanup, or raising money for Hadassah and ORT and the Israel Defense Forces. I\’m here because my youngest son, who is 14 years old and in eighth grade, is playing goalie on a lacrosse team for his school.
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