In the first week of January 2023, it took the US House of Representatives 15 rounds of voting before they could finally award Kevin McCarthy the coveted role of Speaker of the House. While watching the horse-trading, name-calling, and body-slamming among Republican House members, I was reminded of an observation from the late comic George […]
King of Crypto dethroned
Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12th. He has since been extradited to the USA to face trial in the Southern District of New York, likely for wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, and money laundering. SBF, as Bankman-Fried is frequently […]
Bernardo and Homolka: Barbie & Ken of sexual homic
In the mid-Nineties, a crime story out of Toronto horrified the rest of Canada. Paul Bernardo, a clean-cut boyish-looking accountant was arrested and charged with the sexual assault and murder of two teenage girls. The key Crown witness against Bernardo was his attractive young spouse Karla Homolka who’d participated in the two rape/murders but negotiated […]
Jordan Peterson: agent provocateur
Jordan Peterson is a Canadian clinical psychologist and a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. Thanks to three published books, and a substantive YouTube presence, he’s also become a media personality and a lightning rod for intellectual debate on a wide range of subjects — climate, gender identity, political correctness, psychology, religion, and much […]
Sharon Stone: the trauma of miscarriage
In a recent post on Instagram, while expressing sympathy for other women who’ve borne the same trauma, Sharon Stone revealed that she has “lost nine children” through miscarriages over the years. Although men are inevitably acquainted with and affected by such tragedies, nothing quite compares to the grief experienced by a prospective mother who’s carried […]
The Righteous Brothers: blue-eyed soul
In the mid-Sixties, “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” was a trans-Atlantic hit that catapulted two American white boys to the top of the Billboard charts and other play-lists around the world. Produced by Phil Spector, the single showcased a remarkable duet of voices — Bill Medley’s bass baritone and Bobby Hatfield’s soaring tenor. The Righteous […]
Thich Nhat Hanh: spiritual warrior
Thich Nhat Hanh, after a lifetime of service to Buddhism, died recently at age 95. Born 11 October 1926 in central Vietnam, he entered a monastery at age 16, where his primary teacher was a Zen master. He received training in the Vietnamese tradition of Mahayana Buddhism, and was ordained as a Bhikkhu in 1951. […]
Will & Jada: doing it in public
A month ago, a petition began making headway on the website change.org, asking for the media to please stop interviewing Will and Jada Pinkett Smith about their sex life. To date, the site has gathered input from over 23,000 digital signatories, who expressed their collective frustration at the celebrity couple’s tendency to disclose intimate details […]
Elon Musk: Martian mogul
Nature abhors a vacuum, Aristotle is alleged to have said. So, when I realized that one of the world’s wealthiest men did not have a known birth time, I felt compelled to address this void. The multi-billionaire in question is Elon Musk, for whom Astrodienst (astro.com) provides only birth date and place. I won’t burden […]
Randy Andy and the Dungeon of Crumpet
Although he later became a helicopter pilot, Prince Andrew in his youth was never able to fly below the radar of the British tabloids because he was such an obvious target. Before getting married, he was relentlessly tracked by the paparazzi for the sheer number and diversity of his dates â college girls, actresses, models, […]