Rembrandt’s “Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer” (1653, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), is actually three portraits — Aristotle, Homer and, dangling from Aristotle’s gold chain, an image of his most famous student, Alexander the… — Rembrandt’s “Aristotle Contemplating a Bust of Homer” (1653, oil on canvas, The Metropolitan Museum of Art), is actually three portraits — Aristotle, Homer and, dangling from Aristotle’s gold chain, an image of his most famous student, Alexander the Great.

Jeffrey Epstein and the virtuous life

August 14, 2019

I’m of two minds about Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide, which is something I never thought I would say. On the one hand, he was portrayed as pond scum, his alleged victims will now never have to worry about recriminations or retribution and the taxpayers don’t have to support him for the rest of his life in prison — a point my uncle always makes in defense of the death penalty — which is surely where Epstein was headed.

But leave aside the vast right- and left-wing conspiracy theories about the rich and powerful who may have offed him, the federal investigations into whether or not Metropolitan Correctional Center officials turned a blind eye to his suicidal mindset — it appears two correctional officers may have lied about checking on him — and consider instead whether or not we should’ve extended to Epstein the dignity he allegedly denied to his underage victims.

Is sexual harassment lookist?

December 7, 2017

In Larry David’s extremely awkward “Saturday Night Live” appearance a few weeks back, he worried that the recent rash of sexual predators was all Jewish – which is not true, but anyway, what I thought he was going to say was that they were all unattractive. (This was before Matt Lauer and Peter Martins, ballet master in chief of New York City Ballet, were added to the list of sexual harassers.) ...

The tide turns on harassment

November 17, 2017

Is there any man left in America who hasn’t groped, assaulted or raped some girl/boy/woman?

From Capitol Hill to Hollywood, they’re dropping like proverbial flies. The latest to drop – Democratic Sen. Al Franken, who apologized – awkwardly to say the least – for groping a woman in 2006.

Question: What is the difference between a Democratic assaulter and a Republican? No, it’s not a setup for a joke. ...

#MeToo: My story (ies) of sexual harassment

October 19, 2017

I once had a movie producer kiss me on the neck.

How’s that for an opening sentence? Pretty good, huh? Got your attention, right?

It was at the end of an interview when, shaking my hand goodbye, he suddenly lurched forward and kissed me on the neck. (It may have been more of a bite than a kiss, but I don’t actually remember and don’t want to overstate what was a pretty bizarre sendoff.)

Afterward, the embarrassed publicist apologized, concerned that I would be writing about this. But I was a young journalist and had, as a woman, been raised to soldier on. So I said, wrote and did nothing about this. And I hadn’t thought about it until Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual harassment of, well, just about every woman on the planet opened the floodgates of ew-ness. ...