01.04.2011 News By the Book: Four books to top your 2011 reading list I dislike suggesting books I haven’t read but the reviews of these three have me cranked up so, I’m passing them on. The first has the shortest title I’ve...
11.29.2010 News Book Column: Twinkle, twinkle, so few stars The Christmas catalogs are pouring in and I’m in a quandary over what to put on my personal wish list. It’s the colors of the clothes that confound me;...
11.01.2010 Opinion Books: Good old reliable New York writers I came across a 1996 article by Wendy Wasserstein about New York City. She was decrying the presence of big box stores and fast-food restaurants and ended by saying,...
10.04.2010 Opinion Caution: Creepy characters ahead Channel 13 recently showed “Arsenic and Old Lace” and there was cringing Peter Lorre doing his bulgy-eyed, whimpering thing as he slunk away from all the dead bodies he...
09.09.2010 Community Columns Reviewing books by the numbers I was looking over one of the best-seller lists and saw that I had read several of the books. Here’s my take on a few. I’ll pass on “The...
08.12.2010 Community Columns A central rule of writing: Just say it I got some feedback on Somerset Maugham’s three rules of writing, leading me to believe there are more of you out there staring (glaring?) at screens than I would...
07.15.2010 Community Columns A potpourri that starts with a poem I’m without a theme, so this will be miscellaneous stuff, too small for a column, too good to throw out. Like this poem from my grammar school’s latest newsletter....
06.17.2010 Community Columns Wm. and Leo give a test; sadly, he fails We had houseguests last July and, knowing them to be big readers, took them to Southold Free Library’s Book Cottage. While they were harvesting Connellys and Shreves I came...
05.20.2010 Community Columns Fun books for our future book lovers Southold Free Library’s wondrous Dana Hegquist and I have been reading to our second-graders for a few years and I want to tell you about some of the books...
04.22.2010 Community Columns The ABCs of slang ASAP. We all know what that means; it’s one of many capital-letter groupings that have instant recognition. They’re part of our language that’s classified as slang — words, phrases...