As the years seem to fly by I’ve concluded that getting older has very few advantages. Forget “maturity” and “wisdom,” all I can think of are the senior discounts at movie theaters and Norms restaurant.
The late J.D. Salinger’s 1951 coming-of-age novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,” is among my favorite books, although I’m hardly alone. Through Holden Caulfield, his troubled teenage protagonist, Salinger’s portrayal of lost innocence still sells an amazing 250,000 copies annually.
Perhaps I’m a tad paranoid because today I’m writing about the 50th anniversary of one of the most controversial moments in the Cold War. And one that the CIA had its greasy tentacles all over.
Being a UCLA alum, I planned on selecting a fellow Bruin grad at random and writing a “where are they now” column. But with the Super Bowl, a de facto national holiday, just 48 hours away, I figured I’d better make some comment.
If you think you had a rough week, look at the one Mitt Romney just experienced. At a debate he was booed when he hesitated about his tax returns. Then the GOP announced that Rick Santorum was the official winner in Iowa, despite the fact that Romney outspent him by a mere 50 to 1.
These days, sadly, America has become a highly polarized society. It may trace back to the Vietnam era or the Civil War or even the Revolutionary War when the Tories wanted to stay under British rule (which might have precluded the Beatles though I’m not sure the two are related).
For the new year, I resolved that in 2012 I wouldn’t wait until the last minute to write these columns. Here it is a few hours before my deadline and all I have so far is a title.
America’s foremost humorist, Mark Twain, considered the Spanish-American War ironic. (Actually he considered it borderline criminal.) Our forefathers had come to America to escape tyranny and yet we became imperialists.
One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2012 is to avoid waiting until the last minute to write these columns. (Another is to lose 10 pounds.) Unfortunately, it takes a deadline for me to focus on the writing (and to avoid chocolate for the weight).
Few knew that real estate tycoon, and unabashed 1 percent-er, Douglas Scrooge was the great-great-great grandson of Ebenezer Scrooge. But even though the fates of finance had smiled so radiantly upon Scrooge, his icy personality never thawed even a degree.
For anyone old enough to remember back to 1960 the recent photos from Iran of a “captured” American surveillance drone must be reminiscent of another embarrassing saga in American intelligence history.
Even though we worked a decade apart, it’s hard to imagine two more different security guards at the Shores than Charles Bennett and myself. During my 1-year tenure I worked the quiet 4 p.
