ArcaMax

The pressure for President Joe Biden to step aside in the upcoming campaign, allowing a younger (it is presumed) and healthier (it is hoped) candidate to take over for the Democrats, has intensified.

Every day -- every hour, lately -- more Democratic representatives and senators entreat him to pass the torch. The New Yorker recently published...Read more

A mentor of mine died last night.

She'd been sick, with leukemia, and had undergone both a stem cell transplant and chemo, but her cancer had been in remission, and it seemed as if she was traveling rapidly down the road to recovery.

She must have had a turn for the worse, though, because her mother said her death was unexpected and quick. ...Read more

Up front, I want to say this: I have no problem with the Ten Commandments.

They're solid, as far as life rules go. Of course, there are at least seven different versions, there are more than 10 of them, and they make now-unnecessary references to things like graven images and the coveting of slaves. But if you need a handy list of how to keep...Read more

I'm addicted to Bob Ross.

It all started out small. I'd watch an episode or two of "The Joy of Painting" before bedtime to relax, the soothing timbre of Ross' voice lulling me to sleep.

Soon, though, I started watching when I was cooking dinner, then when I was getting dressed. When I'm stressed out, I'll even put on an episode of "The Joy ...Read more

I suppose we should talk about Donald Trump.

I really don't want to, though. Not that there's nothing newsworthy about a former president and current presidential candidate being found guilty of a passel of felonies related to falsifying his business records to hide a hush money payment. No, that's important, I guess.

It's just that so ...Read more

I hate cicadas.

I hate their big, beady eyes. I hate their prehistoric bodies, and how they'll fly into you, heedlessly, like a drunken man spinning around a party. I hate how wormy they look when freshly emerged from their exoskeletons. Speaking of exoskeletons, I hate how cicadas leave little empty copies of themselves all around. I hate ...Read more

I'm not thinking about Harrison Butker.

He seems to be chugging along, doing OK for himself. After all, he's a family man, a professional football player -- a placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs, namely -- and he's clearly a devout Catholic who finds solace in his religion.

What I can't stop thinking about, though, are the others.

In a ...Read more

There's a three-ring circus playing in a Manhattan courthouse right now, with Donald Trump taking the role of the hollering ringmaster leading the show.

As he juggles multiple indictments -- on accusations of everything from election interference to misuse of campaign funds -- he directs his trained bears in Congress to gum up the works and ...Read more