I have not read every paragraph in the continue revelations of legal phone and other electronic snooping that began last June when government secrets brought to light by Edward Snowden were confirmed and published in leading newspapers around the world. But I stay pretty current on it as well as study the journalistic underpinnings and […]
Category: Loose Talk of the Town
Like The New Yorker’s front-of-the-book Talk of the Town, these Bricks are relatively brief takes, “Loose Talk” because all this is relative.
Spread It
Facebook often is positive, and rightfully so. A Brick from 11 months ago supported that: The Future Just Showed Up: Like. Facebook is not all feel-good happy talk but controversy and deliberate negativity get moved down and out quickly — posts get “hidden” and friends become “unfriended.” My last weekend post fell in between. Sunday […]
3 Cheers for Saturday
What, not four? Others are punditing U.S. economy very well. Why there’ll always be real estate agents and contractors In the HomeStyle section of the Saturday regional/state paper is the weekly Personal Space brief. Most weeks the subject, who is asked about her or his home and some biographical information, maneuvers to plug their business […]
Chair Up
Portable chairs these days are of a kind: metal rods supporting a hammock seat and back, designed to collapse and fit in a tubular cloth bag. It’s been impossible to find those web chairs, strips of woven plastic interlaced on a frame of light aluminum tubing; it just folds for transport. Web chairs are more […]
By George
With apologies to George Orwell: Winston gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two Victory Gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose, only to […]
Mosque, Ow, on the Hudson
Some blasts from the vuvuzela. I used to play instruments, not just blow my own horn. While avoiding graven images, there’s no writ against craven puns. Mosque, ow, on the Hudson? Saying where houses of worship do not belong raises all sorts of red flags, no matter the neighborhood, no matter the religion. How could […]