For one brief shining moment: President John F. and Jacqueline B. Kennedy admiring the White House Christmas tree on Dec. 12, 1962. Photograph by Robert Knudsen. Courtesy the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

A not so Merry Christmas?

December 24, 2018

’Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house not a creature was happy, not even a mouse. Where to begin to recount all the reasons for the winter of our discontent. Start with the stock market collapse. As of 2:52 p.m. EST on Christmas Eve, the Dow was down 653.17, or almost 3 percent., for the worst Christmas Eve plunge in its history. But that may turn out merely to be the tip of the Titanic-slaying iceberg. I know, frightening, isn’t it?

Trump to Tillerson: “You’re fired”

March 14, 2018

In the Revolving Door Policy that is the Trump Administration, Secretary Rex Tillerson is out at the State Department, and Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, is in.

I’m of two minds about not-so-sexy Rexy. You can’t run a government or a government agency like a business – cutting people to save money. Tillerson gutted the place and drove senior staffers at State from their jobs. He never understood that a government has a heterogeneity that businesses don’t. It’s only as good as its weakest link. In business, which is first and foremost about making money and a homogenous approach to that goal, you get rid of the weak links. ...

TGIF or ‘Farewell Friday’? The depressing week that was

October 7, 2017

I’m not inclined to depression – nor do I think I have anything but a great life, no matter what its challenges – but I find myself facing each Friday as if I’d just run a marathon with rocks tied to my ankles.

This is a recent phenomenon. OK, it began when Donald J. Trump became president. For certain, not everything that has happened can be blamed on him – certainly not the three hurricanes (Harvey, Irma, Maria) with Nate waiting in the wings to strike the Gulf Coast this weekend. Or the mass shooting in Las Vegas. But I know I am not alone in saying that we arrive at the finish line each workweek, crawling, panting – drained and depleted. ...

As the Easter egg rolls: A bromantic breakup

April 18, 2017

Easter eggs are not all that have been breaking lately. Hearts have been broken, too, as the bromance of the century ends.

Donald J. Trumpet and Vladdie “Rootin’ Tootin’” Putin called it quits after a relationship that lasted less time than that of Aaron Rodgers and Olivia Munn but certainly longer than Britney Spears’ first marriage.

“There is a low level of trust between our countries,” Secretary of State “Sexy Rexy” Tillerson, the John Forsythe of our 1980s nighttime soap opera, noted somberly after meeting with the Russians. ...

Vladdie and The Donald: A fine bromance

February 13, 2017

As a writer of homoerotic fiction, I consider myself a collector and connoisseur of male/male romances. I began with the ancient Greeks, who practically invented homoerotic relationships – all those youths beloved by Apollo, whose depiction reached an apotheosis in the paintings of neoclassical Paris (see Abigail Solomon-Godeau’s provocative book “Male Trouble”); and the relationships of Alexander the Great with his right-hand man, Hephaestion, and eunuch Bagoas, portrayed so movingly in Mary Renault’s “Fire From Heaven” and “The Persian Boy,” respectively.

Then there’s Marguerite Yourcenar’s “Memoirs of Hadrian,” a model for all aspiring historical fiction writers, which tells the story of the titular Greek-loving Roman emperor and his love for the tragic Greek youth Antinous.

Moving on to our own (mostly) gay-friendly, postfeminist time, there’s Gus Van Sant’s ingenious “My Own Private Idaho,” based on “Henry IV,” and Annie Proulx’s hauntingly spare novella “Brokeback Mountain,” made into an equally worthy film by Ang Lee. ...