A Hope for Spring Renewal

A Hope for Spring Renewal

Easter falls on the last day of Pesach this year, and the symmetry seems so perfect in my bicultural home. My Irish-American spouse has arranged an impressive Easter basket full of goodies that evoke the Catholic syncretism that brought bunnies and eggs into...
The Half-Million

The Half-Million

This week began with the news that the United States had surpassed 500,000 COVID-19 deaths. It seemed surreal, almost uncanny; the figure was just another mundane number in the accounting we have watched ticking off steadily – and then exponentially – over the last...
Ceremony of Innocence

Ceremony of Innocence

At noon on Wednesday, Joseph Robinette Biden, Jr. will take the oath of office on the Capitol steps and become the 46th president of the United States. Millions of Americans will breathe a sigh of relief that four years of division, violence, and injustice perpetrated...
A Very American Putsch

A Very American Putsch

The mob of maybe two thousand rioters, egged-on by the inflammatory rhetoric of their political leaders marched down the boulevards toward the government buildings with banners flying. They were going to take their country back from the leftist politicians who had...
Looking Out on the Feast of Stephen

Looking Out on the Feast of Stephen

My father and I arrived at Sam the Record Man in downtown Montreal around 10:30 am, after a late breakfast at Murray’s in Westmount. The Boxing Day crowds that lined up along Rue Ste-Catherine and around the block for hours in the December Chill to get first crack at...