ArcaMax

Despite my age, which is 60, and my wardrobe, which is tweed, plaid and khaki, and my color, which is white, I like rap music. Oh, I still like country music, my first favorite, but something has always drawn me to the beats and the rhymes, and the "urban" station is a preset on my old-school car radio.

So I wasn't completely out of the loop ...Read more

Dispatches from America these days tend to be either soaked in tragedy or soaked in Trump, which means they're soaked in the same thing.

Still, you can't forget those of us who haven't been shot, aren't high on heroin, or have not just become the newest member of President Donald Trump's whack-a-mole White House staff. We're still trying to ...Read more

For 25 years, I've been a reporter on a midsized daily newspaper. For a few years, my beat was a nearby town, a small place that was rapidly making the transition from farm town to suburb.

It was a good beat. It was a 26-mile round trip from the newspaper office. There was no interstate way to get there, and the drive out and back was scenic. I...Read more

I went out to dinner the other night, to a local place, a Portuguese-American social club with a restaurant. Servings are large, prices are low, and the dining room is luxuriously paneled in circa 1970 fake pine. It's a good place. I ordered the baked stuffed shrimp and a Budweiser. I don't drink a lot of Budweiser, but I've always liked it with...Read more

I don't want single-payer health insurance.

You know why?

Because I think the company you work for ought to give you health insurance. I think it's your employer's responsibility.

There, I've said it.

I've said the great forbidden thing in 2017, which is that your employer owes you something other than a paycheck.

It's forbidden to say ...Read more

Donald Trump, United States president and international punchline, wants to repeal the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, sometimes called the "DREAM Act." Well, he wants someone else to repeal it for him, since he can't change laws all by himself, not until he becomes president for life.

And you can't agree with that, can you? My ...Read more

We ought to just let the grass take Houston, the grass and the bayous. Same thing with New Orleans, a city that was born on life support. It's a big country. Those people can find somewhere else to live. Maybe they can refugee up to Canada. We could give every Houstonian $100,000 to make a new start. The poor and the meth addicts will take it,...Read more

One of my aunts and my grandmother both made beautiful afghans, those cozy, crocheted lap-warmers that remain popular. I don't think as many women crochet or knit as in that day, but there's more than you'd think. Like stamp collecting, afghan-making doesn't make a lot of noise in the world, but it always has it's congregation.

I remember ...Read more

One of the worst advertising flops I've ever seen has been the effort to replace the original Colonel Sanders, the portly, white-suited gent who invented, and later advertised, Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The first Colonel Sanders replacement was teenage-girl-chained-in-the-cellar creepy, and the newest guy is vaguely threatening, plus, in the most...Read more

I believe everyone should invent at least one thing before they die. It doesn't have to be a new kind of artificial intelligence, or a car that runs on ketchup, or anything important. It's enough if you invent a better way to make your favorite noodle casserole, just as long as you mark your life with a little innovation.

Me? I invented ...Read more

When I was a kid, and I did something wrong, I got punished. But Pop had standards.

Sometimes, I'd do something bad and instead of giving me a quick clip on the side of the head the old man would just look at me for a second or two.

"I'm not gonna punish you," he'd say. "It had to be a mistake because nobody would do anything this stupid on ...Read more

"Red and yellow and pink and green/ Purple and orange and blue/ I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow..."

Remember that song from your sweet little childhood days?

Me, too.

Now, let's sing the "alt-right" rainbow:

"White and straight and white and white/ White and Christian and white/ I can sing a rainbow, sing a rainbow..."

Faced with ...Read more

While other members of the elitist media focus on President Donald J. Trump's numerous crudities, ruderies and knowledge gaperies, I can see him for his true self.

He is a titan of intellect, a man who wants to make America great again, but can't.

He is chained, handcuffed, bound, made ineffective.

Is it a Democratic House that has chained ...Read more