God directs Abram, renamed Abraham, to count all the stars for that is how numerous his descendants shall be. From a Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld woodcut for a “Bible in Pictures” (1860).

What's in a royal name? Plenty

June 17, 2021

It’s one of the few things you carry throughout your life that you don’t actually choose. I’m talking about a name, of course — although that may come as a surprise to Lady Gaga and other celebrities who are often better known by their stage names than their given ones.

It might certainly come as a surprise to the former Meghan Markle, whose actual name is Rachel Meghan Markle but who calls herself Meghan. There are two schools of thought about people who rename themselves: They are wildly independent. They are wildly insecure. I myself don’t care for my first or middle names, but I was named for my grandmothers, whose memories I care greatly about honoring. So I wear their names with pride. And when time came for my Confirmation, I chose another name that I liked better and have since added a fourth that is my favorite. You can understand why the Department of Motor Vehicles has a problem with me.

But back to Meghan, Duchess of Sussex — yet another name. She and her husband, Prince Harry, have chosen to name their newborn daughter after his grandmother and mother, Queen Elizabeth II and the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Fair enough. Lots of girls, especially first-born daughters, are named as I was after grandmothers or great-grandmothers. It was, however, how they chose to honor Prince Harry’s grandmother that has become the sticking point. Instead of naming their daughter Elizabeth Diana, they named her Lillbet Diana, after the queen’s childhood nickname.

As the story goes, the nickname was based on her own mispronunciation of her name when she was very young. It was then championed by her grandparents, King George V and Queen Mary,; her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, known as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother; her sister, Princess Margaret; and her husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Perhaps some of her contemporary cousins use it as well. Perhaps not. Needless to say, the principle people who called the queen “Lilibet” are, sadly, all gone.

So the question becomes why would you name your child after someone’s intimate nickname that has nothing to do with you?

A portable typewriter that belonged to Ernest Hemingway. Unfortunately, much of what is “written” on the internet today is not Hemingway-caliber prose but rather what H.L. Mencken or Truman Capote once referred to as merely typing. Photograph by Jim Heaphy.

Donald J. Trump, former blogger

June 6, 2021

Lost in all the hoopla surrounding former President Donald J. Trump being banned from Facebook for two years is the news that his blog and website are kaput after 29 days. As a blogger myself, I was more than intrigued by this. Apparently, it was due to lack of interest on the part of the public. But could it also be that domain contracts, like prenups, have shelf lives? Maybe 30 days was the free trial.

Naomi Osaka serving in June 2018. Photograph by Peter Menzel.

No love all in Osaka meeting the press

June 3, 2021

Every once and a while a story comes along that touches us neurotic journalists to our core. The latest chapter in the life of tennis star Naomi Osaka is such a story.

As you by now no doubt know, Osaka — the No. 2-ranked woman in tennis and the highest paid female athlete in the world, one who advocates for racial justice and expresses herself through fashion —was struggling through the clay court season when she hit a roadblock at the French Open in Paris. Osaka decided she would not attend the obligatory press conferences as questions about her poor clay court play were messing with her head. Being a 23-year-old, Osaka did what any 23-year-old would do: She made the announcement on social media. Tournament officials did what tournament officials do-do so well: They fined her.

The Ryanair Boeing 737 that was hijacked on May 23, seen in 2019 in Poland. Photograph by Andrzej Otrębski. — The Ryanair Boeing 737 that was hijacked on May 23, seen in 2019 in Poland. *Photograph by* *Andrzej Otrębski*.

Flying blind: Our peculiar reaction to the Ryanair hijacking

May 27, 2021

Though we should never court tragedy, we know our true selves really only in it. Catastrophe, adversity of any kind, reveals character. So what does the Belarusian hijacking of a Ryanair jet tell us about ourselves?

It tells us what we have known all along in our fractured age, what we have seen with the pandemic, which is that we can’t come together in a crisis, because we can’t think clearly about it.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) in 2016. Courtesy Office of Liz Cheney.

Liz Cheney -- martyr to our illogical times

May 23, 2021

You have to wonder what Nathaniel Hawthorne would’ve made of ousted House Republican Party Conference chair Liz Cheney. Would she have been standing on the scaffold with Hester Prynne and her out-of-wedlock baby, Pearl, wearing a big scarlet “O” for ousted or a scarlet “B” stabbed with an interlocking “L” for “Big lLie”?

More adventures in publishing -- Covid through the prism of culture

May 7, 2021

The worlds of art and literature, while complementary and collaborative, are really quite different. That point was driven home to me as I took in a preview of ArtsWestchester’s exhibit “Together apART: Creating During COVID,” which opens Friday, May 7,, and runs through Aug. 1 at ArtsW’s Arts Exchange headquarters in White Plains., New York. It’s a provocative show, which I expected given the subject matter and other exhibits I’ve covered there. What I didn’t expect was how beautiful it is.

Floral tributes to Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who was laid to rest Saturday, April 17, at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, line Buckingham Palace in London.

A funeral fit for a prince

April 19, 2021

Having logged more than 22,000 solo engagements for the British monarchy, Prince Philip – who was laid to rest at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle Saturday, April 17 -- knew a thing or two about attending funerals. And so it’s no surprise that his own, which he planned himself, was lovely – simple, straightforward and moving as befitted a no-fuss naval man and our Covid times – with hymns, selections from the “Book of Common Prayer” and 30 masked, socially distanced mourners – led by his widow, Queen Elizabeth II – who could not help but shed the occasional tear.