When someone dies, every decade of his or her life become’s contemporary. Here the future Queen Elizabeth II in a 1933 portrait by Philip de Lázló.

Queen of the world -- Elizabeth II (1926-2022)

September 9, 2022

One of the advantages of longevity is that you eventually outrun everything and everyone else – friends, family, critics, even history. And so it is with Queen Elizabeth II, who began her reign as a 25 year old in the blush of postwar promise and ended it as the world’s sovereign and matriarch with her passing Sept. 8 at Balmoral Castle in Scotland at age 96. The death of England’s longest reigning monarch (70 years) begins a period of mourning in Great Britain that will be crowned by her funeral, led by her eldest son and heir, now King Charles III.

Queen Elizabeth II greets employees on her walk from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center mission control to a reception in the center’s main auditorium in Greenbelt, Maryland, 2007. Photograph by Bill Ingalls/NASA.

Her Majesty's senior service

May 31, 2022

I promised you a post about Queen Elizabeth II and seniors in the workplace, and I always try to keep my promises. So here it is and a much needed change of pace from the world’s ills it offers — but only to a certain extent.

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee takes place June 2 through 5, celebrating her 70 years on the British throne. When she turned 21 in 1947, then Princess Elizabeth pledged her life, “whether it be long or short,” to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth Five years later, her beloved father, George VI, would be dead and she would be queen.

Polo legends: Nacho Figueras, East Coast Bronze Cup awards presenter and Ralph Lauren Polo spokesmodel, hugs Mariano Aguerre, a mainstay of the victorious White Birch team. Photograph by Robin Costello.

Father's Day at Greenwich Polo Club

June 24, 2021

White Birch, Greenwich Polo Club’s home team, came from behind to defeat Palm Beach Equine 11-8 for the East Coast Bronze Cup on a hot but picture-perfect Father’s Day that saw the start of summer. All afternoon, White Birch’s Pablo Llorente Jr. and Palm Beach Equine’s Gringo Colombres mixed it up in what was a seesaw match for most of the chukkers. But in the end White Birch pulled away, anchored by tournament MVP Chris Brant, son of club founder Peter Brant.

Justify streaks home with the Belmont Stakes win and the Triple Crown in 2018. The Bob Baffert-trained beauty would later face a drug-doping charge that was dropped. Photograph by Mike Lizzi.

Horsing around with the truth

May 12, 2021

It’s Triple Crown season, and once again controversy is afoot — or rather, a-hoof.

After the gallant win of little Medina Spirit in the Kentucky Derby, news broke that the horse had tested positive for Betamethasone, a steroid used to treat inflammation but banned on race day. throwing a cloud of suspicion on trainer Bob Baffert. The trainer of TC winners American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) — who was also involved in a banned substance charge that was ultimately dismissed — Baffert has denied the allegations, claiming foul play, sour grapes and “cancel culture” were behind them. (More on “cancel culture” in a bit.) Turns out the anti-inflammatory was in an antifungal ointment that was being used to treat Medina Spirit’s dermatitis. But what Baffert knew and when he knew it remains subject to question.

Sudden death on D.C.'s power courts

October 24, 2019

A president in thrall to a foreign power. A disenchanted first lady. A White House moving toward crisis.

No, not that White House. But sometimes life imitates art, as it does in Georgette Gouveia’s new psychological thriller, “Burying the Dead” (JMS Books, Oct. 30). It’s a high stakes game of love and death, set on the power courts of Washington, D.C. and other glittering world capitals, that represents a departure for Gouveia, whose previous novels were in the trending category of male/male romance.

Justify winning the 2018 Belmont Stakes to become the 13th Triple Crown winner. Photograph by Mike Lizzi.

Justifying Justify

September 15, 2019

Let us conduct a thought experiment, shall we? You are a world-class tennis player on the eve of the US Open. The night before it begins, a villainous individual steels into your room and injects you with a powerful, performance-enhancing drug. You, in a deep sleep, barely feel a pinprick. To you, it’s all a dream — but one that is about to become a nightmare.

Rounding the first turn, Bodexpress (far right) goes it alone. There’s something poignant and noble about that. Courtesy MarylandGovPics.

Lessons from the Bode(xpress)sattva

May 21, 2019

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is one who has attained enlightenment but continues to struggle on the Earth to help others. The Dalai Lama is considered a bodhisattva.

Bodexpress – the trending racehorse who shucked off his jockey, John A. Velazquez, Saturday in the Preakness Stakes, then ran the race riderless and more before finally being corralled – offered his own brand of enlightenment for viewers: