“25 May 2022. Dear Senator, I write to ask you to begin working toward a sensible, humane way of dealing with the unbelievable and unjustifiable number of deadly weapons that represent a substantial threat to the lives of American citizens — of all ages but especially the very young. I…

Children. They’re like children. If it’s bright and shiny it’s news. If it will scare the pants off you, it’s news. Not to be unfair or unkind to children who — being the real thing — are, on the whole, more trustworthy than anyone on the evening news. When a…

Two questions insist: (1) Who is doing the attacking? and (2) What is it precisely that is being attacked? The absence of clear answers is more than worrisome. The first mistake here — and it’s a whopper— is the assumption that what we have, in this country, is a democracy…

He’s having the time of his life. He’s living the life of the American Dream: do what you want, say whatever you like, but just don’t get caught! Don’t you wish you could? He knows. He believes in nothing but his own existence, and flaunts it. Do you think you…

I’m so far out in left field with this one that I can’t even see the stadium from where I am now. Still, here goes. So much critical space has been taken up with questions about Henry V himself — Who or what was he? Did Shakespeare like him or…

This sprang into life suddenly this afternoon, as I watched the news. Once again I was tempted to turn it off for one reason in particular.. It's so bloody confusing! What should one hope for? What should one fear? It's so easy to get lost in the daily accumulation of…

WITH ADDENDUM — APRIL 5, 2022 There is much to be learned from the war crimes committed in the Ukraine by what remains of the Soviet Union which, as historically tangled as it may have been, is not to be confused with the reign of Vladimir Putin, the last Czar…

CODA The two parts of Henry IV are really the story of Prince Hal and his path to the throne. I am rather sure Shakespeare knew enough about Hal’s earliest days, and what a decent, obedient young man he was, and the profound change in the boy’s life when his…

PART 5 So we come to it — the nightmare. To become a king — if one takes the job seriously — is to gain the thing most sought and the thing most feared. I think it may be what that young actor caught sight of without perhaps fully understanding…