I’ve had the feeling, the last few days, of watching a Hollywood train wreck in slow motion but with the star believing he is driving the train and the director letting him think… Continue reading →

The answer: both hide abuse. My old favorite David Brooks continues up his creek seeking a paddle. It is he, who, for some reason, thinks the political divides in the United States can… Continue reading →

The other day, I linked on Facebook to a piece by Steven Brill that takes elite lawyers of the baby-boom generation to task for ruining America. Commenters, predictably (and correctly) took Brill himself… Continue reading →

Because of the nature of New York City College of Technology, the City University of New York campus where I teach, my Introduction to Journalism class is a little different from one at… Continue reading →

There may be a certain joy in tracking down and exposing the likes of Aaron Schlossberg and Jennifer Schulte, but we should take little pride in the glee of calling out racists and… Continue reading →

Half a cup of flour, slightly less of almond milk. Tablespoons of canola oil and molasses. Half a teaspoon of baking powder. Purists don’t like it: no egg, no beaten whites, no milk,… Continue reading →

In 1800, my ancestor Aaron Barlow traveled with his daughter Esther to Norfolk, Virginia where both got caught by a yellow-fever epidemic and died. They are buried in a mass grave there, along… Continue reading →

Willowbrook. Any New Yorker of a certain age shudders at that name–and no, not because it was Geraldo Rivera who brought it to our attention. Willowbrook was a place of horrors all on… Continue reading →

  My conception of who makes a good political candidate is changing, and fast. Until recently, there were certain people and certain positions I could never support. Candidates could not be evangelical Christians… Continue reading →

Over the past year, we’ve twice “won” New York City affordable housing lotteries. We learned quite a bit through the process, but pulled out in both cases. As I am a college professor,… Continue reading →