I hate to put anyone off their feed for Thanksgiving, but it seems the right time to share the heartwarming tale of a wild turkey family of seven that lives in our neighborhood.  Warning:  Baby turkey videos ahead that may melt your heart!

We live in a… Read full post »

 

 

Blog radio, that is.

I’ve been getting some interesting offers because of my Mad Men commentaries that Kerry and Thomas have so graciously featured on the cover.  The latest was from Shelley Ackerman, an astrologer with a blog radio show cleverly called “Karmic R… Read full post »

 

Nothing ends without something else beginning.  In perhaps the most action-packed show of the entire series, the Sterling Cooper agency we’ve known comes to an end in the Season 3 finale of Mad Men, “Shut… Read full post »

 

 

We can all stop worrying about our OS addiction as well as our Facebook obsession and LinkedIn updating compulsion.  A study by the Pew Center, a prestigious nonprofit think tank in Wahington D.C., has concluded that users of the internet and mobile media are not losers, u… Read full post »

 

Well, now we know where Marvin Gaye got the idea.

It’s a cliché that the 19…

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In Season 1’s brilliant episode of Mad Men, “The Hobo Code,” we learned about Dick Whitman’s childhood by focusing on a time that a hobo visited his father’s Depre… Read full post »

Not so fast there, Don.  

Last week people were speculating on how Don would negotiate the coming societal changes and statements like this from him aren’t reassuring.  In "
… Read full post »

 

 ^{Portion of Cypress Freeway in Oakland, after collapse.  Photo by USGS}

 

I was a minute away from being in the elevator.

On October 17th, 1989, that was approximately my third thought as the 7.1 Loma Prieta earthquake hit while I was walking to the elevators in my downto… Read full post »

 

 

 

 

Something’s afoot at Sterling-Cooper.

In the 6th episode of Season 3 of Mad Men, “Guy Walks into an Advertising Agency… Read full post »

 

 

The death of Yale graduate student Annie Le and the subsequent arrest of Raymond Clark, a co-worker who has been labeled a “control freak” by acquaintances has gotten me thinking about the risk of violence for students at college.

On TV this week, a criminal profile… Read full post »

 

Liminal states are fascinating.  We float between sleep and wakefulness, between dream and reality, and eventually between life and death.  Hove…

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Indeed we do, Gene. These latest episodes are so packed with story, character development, symbolism, revealing dialogue, historical allusions and humor that it’s hard to keep up.   Poor Gene couldn… Read full post »

 

 

Mad Men’s third episode of the third season, “My Old Kentucky Home,” is full of intimations of the changes that are to come, as well as the ones…

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Over the years, I’ve noticed a common finding in research on human behavior:  people thinking that they’re a lot better at something than they really are.  

This optimism seems hard-wired and mostly beneficial, not only getting us through the ordinary difficulties of life, but se… Read full post »

When I was growing up in the 1960's, my mother had the popular "I Hate to Cook" cookbook from Peg Bracken.  I have no idea what was in that book, but if it was anything that my mother actually ended up putting on the dinner table, it should have been called… Read full post »

And…we’re back.  Back to the Mad Men we love, with an episode so packed with meaningful dialogue and densely woven themes that it’s hard to know where to start.  Aptl/…

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 "Can you believe this?" ~ Ken Cosgrove

 

Sterling Cooper isn't what it used to be:  The British invasion has arrived ahead of the Beatles (and they brought some ants), they're firing people right and left (but only people we've never seen before and so have… Read full post »

 

 

With Season 3 of Mad Men starting this Sunday, I’ve been watching Season 2 again and marveling at how rich the show is, the episodes revealing new pleasures and resonances every time you see them.  But then I’ve loved Mad Men from the first minutes of the… Read full post »

 

 A pregnant Sharon Tate, not long before she died.

 

40 years ago today, a horrific crime occurred that continues to have reverberations beyond the personal tragedy that it brought to the victims and their families.

Writers such as Joan Didion have identified the night of Au… Read full post »

If you ever quote news stories here in your blog (as I do), you should take the time to read today's Opinionator blog at the New York Times, titled "Steal This Professionally Reported Content," in which a recent controversy discussed all over traditional media and the blogosophere is dissected in suc… Read full post »

The pornographic movie industry, in response to the Internet, is focusing even less on narrative arcs these days. Savanna Samson, an actress, says she favors scripts with more dialogue. […] “Getting it on in one hardcore scene after another just isn’t as much fun,” she added.… Read full post »

 

 

This weekend brought one of the rituals of our summers:  The annual Scottish Games at the beautiful historic Dunsmuir Hellman Estate in the Oakland hills.

 

 

Although the Games are held over a full weekend, compared to other… Read full post »

 "J'ai deux amours...mon pays et Paris."

(I have two loves:  My country and Paris.)

 

For a soundtrack to this post, click this video (but scroll on down to my text and pix! Not my pix in the video....)

 

After both studying French for years,… Read full post »

 

Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s, I was a huge fan of the TV show “thirtysomething,” which chronicled the lives of a Big Chill-ish group of friends (depending on your point of view, either whiny self-absorbed yuppies or people eerily… Read full post »