The Unisphere — symbol of the most global place on the face of the Earth, the polyglot New York City borough of Queens. It’s the birthplace of President Donald J. Trump and part of it is in Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s district.

Mirror, mirror: Trump and the Squad

July 19, 2019

So, my uncle wanted to know, what do you think of those four women?

“Those four women” are, of course Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna S. Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — who had been taking and giving the heat to House Leader Nancy Pelosi on a number of issues but mainly for their leftist impatience with her middle-of-the-road, compromise strategy. I think my answer surprised my uncle, who likes to bait me. I told him I’m not a particular fan of the Squad.

A scene from “The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead” (British Museum), in which the heart of the deceased is measured against the feather of truth.

The company Trump and others keep

July 12, 2019

So Sir Kim Darroch, British ambassador to the United States, has resigned after his remarks about the Trump Administration’s dysfunction — made in private to his own government — were leaked and President Donald J. Trump proclaimed himself “not a fan.”

Everyone but particularly an ambassador should have the right to express his opinion in privacy without fear of reprisals. But in the age of 24/7 social media and Brexit — of which Darroch was apparently not a fan — it was perhaps inevitable that he should be done in. I guess we’ll have to go back to communicating the old-fashioned way — face to face.

“Not a fan”: Darroch should have those words emblazoned on a T-shirt and wear it proudly. Remember, El Presidente wasn’t a fan of the late Sen. John McCain. So Darroch is in good company.

And The Donald had been a former fan of some who are now in the hot seat, including Jeffrey Epstein, who has been charged in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York with sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York.

The Redcoats are flying; the Redcoats are flying

July 9, 2019

Unless you were visiting Pluto over the Fourth of July weekend, you were aware that not all the fireworks were on Macy’s barges in New York City’s East River or over cityscapes and village greens around the nation.

No, much of the rockets’ red glare and many of the bombs bursting in air came from the Twitterati reacting to President Donald J. Trump’s address at the Lincoln Memorial.

A world of immigrants

July 4, 2019

As America celebrates its 243rd birthday today, we are reminded that we are a nation of immigrants — and yet that nation and that notion are both under siege. Squalor at detention camps at the border. A Washington state judge subsequently ruling that asylum seekers can’t be kept in detention indefinitely — a Trumpian policy that has created the crisis. President Donald J. Trump — so good at the trappings of America’s birthday, with his tanks in Washington D.C. and his speech at the Lincoln Memorial — defiying the Supreme Court ruling that bars a citizenship question on the U.S. Census.

Alabama’s Lady Liberty in Liberty Park, Vestavia Hills. While the state celebrates Lady Liberty, it appears to be less interested in individual women’s freedom. Carol M. Highsmith/Library of Congress.

Stupid acts, laws in Alabama

July 1, 2019

Alabama has indicted a woman in the death of her fetus after she started a fight with another woman, who then shot her. The shooter was not indicted.

If this all sounds nuts, it’s actually perfectly logical in a place whose laws value guns more than life and the life of the unborn over that of the mother.

The dramatically lit Aphrodite of Knidos — with her baby, Eros, sleeping at her side — in “The Countless Aspects of Beauty” exhibit at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, a feast for the sense. Photograph by the author.

Greek to us

June 27, 2019

“We’re not interested in Alexander I.”

That’s what one of my colleagues said to me about Alexander the Great (who was Alexander III, but no matter).

I thought about this as I returned to Greece recently on another “Legacy of Alexander the Great” tour, this time with The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Arrangements Abroad. I thought about this as we swept by plane from Thessaloniki — Greece’s second largest city, named for one of Alexander’s younger sisters — spitj to Athens, the capital, on a 12-day tour that included buscapades to many of the nation’s most important museums and archaeological sites.

Landing on Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. Photograph by Chief Photographer’s Mate Robert F. Sargent

Tragedy and farce in remembering D-Day

June 7, 2019

In his essay “The Eighth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon,” Karl Marx quotes the Hegelian idea that “all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice.

“He forgot to add the first time as tragedy,” Marx went on, “the second time as farce.”

On Thursday, the world marked the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Normandy to liberate Europe of Nazi tyranny. The Allies have been marking it as shadows of themselves. During the American Revolution, the British invaded the colonies, bringing death and destruction. This week, we returned the favor. We sent them Trump.