

Essays
A collection of writings spanning 2004 to 2025, originally published in The American Magazine.
Latest work
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Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?
Read more: Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?Pope John Paul II in France in 1980. When the Spanish psychiatrist got the news, he did not behave as the man of action he was. He needed time, which he took. His speech came out in lucid snippets. His eyes glossed slightly. Occasionally he winced, furrowing cheeks and forehead.…
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We’re getting word…
Read more: We’re getting word…Madrid: Collecting the dead. BC-Italy-Terror Blast,0976 – URGENT At least 400 dead in terrorist blasts at historic Rome square ROME, Italy (Combined dispatches) – Separate bomb blasts seconds apart devastated Rome’s historic Piazza Navona Sunday, leveling a famous 17th-century fountain and turning a half-block stretch of ancient cobblestones into a charred…
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Voice of America
Read more: Voice of AmericaBloggers and satirists run amok… Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin speaks English in the way many Americans do, excitedly and often haltingly. Called on to focus, she gushes. Asked to elaborate, she dissembles. Hectored for specifics, she simpers. Gush is a word most Americans know. Dissemble and simper are decidedly…
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Vermi d’inchiostro
Read more: Vermi d’inchiostro“I have a difficult time speaking precisely,” said Calvino. What a shy man. We sat like perfunctory diplomats on the veranda of his Adriatic seafront home. He had writer’s block, he said finally, and the impediment chipped away at his speech. It would make him less interesting than usual, which…
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Twilight of an astronaut
Read more: Twilight of an astronautAn astronaut on the moon. Many moons ago I imagined myself an astronaut. I was then in my teens, but my head was in the clouds. The actual Moon, green cheese no longer, was on everyone’s mind. I was in a giant silver space suit. Invulnerable. Nothing outside could touch…
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Toward the revival of diplomacy
Read more: Toward the revival of diplomacyDiplomacy has, unfortunately, become associated with appeasement; yet it is an absolute necessity in a global world. A war is child’s play with morosely adult consequences. A bully tries to snare a weakling as a means to assert himself. The weakling fights back, or tries, and enlists allies to help.…











