Blog

Then Meghan Markle and Prince Harry attend church at Sandringham on Christmas Day, 2017. Photograph by Mark Jones.

A bridge too far? The Harry-Meghan interview

March 7, 2021

Just how damaging was the interview Oprah Winfrey did with Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, on Sunday, March 7 on CBS? Put Prince Charles’ revelations about him never loving Diana, Princess of Wales, together with Diana’s “there were three in this marriage”, multiply it a gazillion times and you have an idea of the damage quotient not only for the royal family but for the Sussexes as well.

Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, greeting well-wishers in Belfast in March 2018. It’s a striking photograph that shows the bridge that the duchess could’ve been within the royal family. Courtesy Northern Ireland Office. — Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, greeting well-wishers in Belfast in March 2018. It’s a striking photograph that shows the bridge that the duchess could’ve been within the royal family. **Courtesy** Northern Ireland Office.

Lost horizon: Harry, Meghan and the monarchy

March 5, 2021

It’s the interview many will be talking about whether you’re a royal watcher or not – Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s sit-down with Oprah Winfrey, which airs on CBS Sunday, March 7, from 8 to 10 p.m.

Already snippets of the interview have provoked a strong reaction, with monarchy loyalists decrying the Sussexes’ whining about being relieved of their royal duties and patronages and Sussex supporters lambasting the crown for shutting the pair out amid an atmosphere of stultifying tradition and corrosive racism. Not since the War of the Roses – or at the very least, the “War of the Waleses” between Prince Harry’s parents, Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales – has an English dynasty been so divided, you might say. But actually a better analogy is what one poster described as a Wimbledon final played not on grass but across the Atlantic.

The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters has forced us all to put our cards face up on the table. It’s not a pretty hand. Photograph by Tyler Merbler. — The storming of the Capitol by Trump supporters has forced us all to put our cards face up on the table. It’s not a pretty hand. *Photograph by Tyler Merbler.*

Barbarians at the gates -- the events of 1/6/21

January 8, 2021

The late comedian Red Skelton had a humble way with an audience but a wicked sense of humor about the rich and powerful. When tyrannical Columbia Pictures head Harry Cohn — the man who turned Margarita Carmen Cansino into Rita Hayworth and Marilyn Novak into Kim Novak — passed away, his funeral was well-attended, to which Skelton remarked, “It just goes to show you: Give the people what they want and they’ll turn out for it.”

Jan. 5, the people of Georgia turned out to send two Democrats — Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock — to the United States Senate, giving the Dems a one-vote majority in that body.

Jan. 6, President Donald J. Trump’s cult followers turned out, too, taking four years of disproportionate white, working-class grievance to the Capitol, where they acted like thugs — disrupting the Electoral College vote counting that would once again certify Joe Biden as president-elect; running through hallways, banging on doors, stealing mail and podiums, breaking windows and furniture; and generally disrespecting the place and the people who work there as their actions led to four deaths and countless injuries. Of all the terrible images, the one I can’t get out of my head is of one of the MAGAts posing with his red MAGA hat on a statue. If someone did that in my house, I would say, “Hats are for closets. Yours will be handed back to you as soon as you leave.”

The original Karen? In the Gospel According to St. Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow, who receives a judgment against her adversary from an unjust judge simply so he can be rid of her. One person’s nagging is another’s tenacity. … — The original Karen? In the Gospel According to St. Luke, Jesus tells the parable of the persistent widow, who receives a judgment against her adversary from an unjust judge simply so he can be rid of her. One person’s nagging is another’s tenacity. Image from “Christ’s Object Lessons” by Helen Gould Harmon White (Pacific Press Publishing Co., 1900).

On Karens and angry white men

December 31, 2020

The latest edition of what I call “the literature of rejection “— the disproportionate rage at some insult by life, as evinced by the antiheroes of such fictional works as “The Iliad,” “Paradise Lost” and “Wuthering Heights” and in real life by mass murderers, assassins and terrorists that have included John Wilkes Booth, Adolf Hitler, Lee Harvey Oswald, Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden — is the case of the Nashville bomber, Anthony Quinn Warner.

He fits the profile of the literature of rejection — angry, generally white and always male. What was Warner angry at exactly? AT &T? 5G? His father, who had worked for AT&T? Life? Himself? Unlike many of these monsters, he had a girlfriend — or ex-girlfriend — and that’s where things get really interesting.

Jill Biden, who likes to be known as Dr. Jill Biden, in her official 2009 portrait as second lady of the United States. Photograph by Ralph Alswang for the White House.

A 'doctor' in the (White) House

December 16, 2020

The latest skirmish in the culture wars involves incoming first lady Dr. Jill Biden, as she likes to be known.

Biden is not a medical doctor but a doctor of education, and that seems to have stuck in the craw of Joseph Epstein (honorary doctorate), who in a somewhat snarky piece for The Wall Street Journal, told Biden in effect to stow it. Epstein’s commentary was not so much about BIden but about the decline of educational standards in general in this country, something I would heartily agree with, including in the awarding of doctorates, something I would not agree with. My family was enormously proud to see my oldest nephew Matthew receive his doctorate in applied mathematics after years of hard work and challenges that began when he was in high school. The degree has brought him a plum job as a government subcontractor at a prestigious university. So a PhD in any subject is nothing to sneeze at, and we can’t assume it wasn’t well-earned.

Churches like St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, seen here, would argue that they should not be discriminated against when it comes to Covid restrictions. And they shouldn’t but for the fact that indoor services lend themselves more naturally to … — Churches like St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Manhattan, seen here, would argue that they should not be discriminated against when it comes to Covid restrictions. And they shouldn’t but for the fact that indoor services lend themselves more naturally to contagion than does a liquor-store run. Photograph by Peter K. Burian.

Right church, wrong pew: The Supremes and 'freedom of religion'

December 1, 2020

As a practicing Roman Catholic, i can’t tell you how upset I was with the dreadful United States Supreme Court decision to allow services in New York houses of worship to go on unrestricted.

The court ruled it was a violation of the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion when, after all, bike shops weren’t restricted. Here’s Justice Jimmy Stewart, uh, Neil M. Gorsuch in the concurring opinion:

“It is time — past time — to make plain that, while the pandemic poses many grave challenges, there is no world in which the Constitution tolerates color-coded executive edicts that reopen liquor stores and bike shops but shutter churches, synagogues and mosques.”

Uh, Neil, I don’t think people who go into liquor stores are sitting in pews for an hour taking part in a service. I think the liquor store or bike shop is a 10-minute visit, tops.

Diana, Princess of Wales, and tenor Luciano Pavarotti at the concert “Pavarotti and Friends for the Benefit of the Children of Bosnia” in his hometown of Modena, Italy, in September 1995. Cut loose from the royal family, she had by then developed th… — Diana, Princess of Wales, and tenor Luciano Pavarotti at the concert “Pavarotti and Friends for the Benefit of the Children of Bosnia” in his hometown of Modena, Italy, in September 1995. Cut loose from the royal family, she had by then developed the elegantly economical look that crystallized her last years and our sense of a woman in full.

Diana, our lady of compassion

November 29, 2020

Winter, as Charles Dickens knew, is the season of ghosts. The holidays bring memories of those who are no longer with us, reminders of those who cannot grace our tables — never more so than during the pandemic when the table is often a table set for just one.

TV, too, the great American unifier and divider, plays a role in this with sad but uplifting holiday fare and series that reopen old wounds while underscoring that the past is never really over, because it is part of the continuum that informs the present and the future.

“The Crown,” Netflix’s addictive-as-potato-chips series about the British royal family, is now in its fourth season, which brings us to the Diana years and a reappraisal of her, her legacy and what went so horribly wrong. Why does Diana, Princess of Wales, haunt us still? More to the point, why do we still haunt her — for it is the living who haunt the dead, not the other way around.