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\The Self-Made Man\, a new film by my friend Susan Stern, will have its television premiere on the PBS series “P.O.V.” this coming week (and while I’m boasting about my friends, let me say that “P.O.V.” was created by another friend of mine, the prodigiously talented Marc Weiss). Most stations will air it on July …

If you didn’t know I was a baby-boomer, it would surely become evident in my tendency to find timeless wisdom in the lyrics of pop songs. My new car has a CD player, which I immediately loaded up with personal favorites. Van Morrison’s 1968 \Astral Weeks\ is my desert-island recording: I got it as a …

Something is happening that raises my spirits: ultra-respectable liberal commentators — folks no one can reasonably dismiss as wild-eyed radicals (such as Elizabeth Drew, whom I wrote about on July 5th) — are standing up and speaking truth to power in a forthright fashion that knocks me off my feet. Latest case in point is …

When I read about your predicament as Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, presiding over hearings on the Bush administration’s next Supreme Court nominee, I think of Queen Esther. The biblical Book of Esther tells the story of a young Jewish woman who wins a beauty contest to become a queen of Persia. As time …

The day after millions consumed beer, barbecue and pyrotechnics to honor the 229th anniversary of our nation’s hard-won liberation from the British Empire, I’d like make a modest proposal. It appears at the end of this essay, but be patient: first I’d like to tell you why. If you read to the end and agree …

I’m one of those people who has a pithy little quote appended to my email signature. Whether I do this to share what touches me or in the impudent hope of instructing the world, I leave it to you to decide. But for the longest time, this epigram from the filmmaker Jean Renoir appeared at …