Volume 267 | No. 4

All Black People are Not the Same

To the Editor: In the lobby of the movie theater last weekend—Oct 22nd—A woman came up to me and said “Are you Viola Davis?! I can’t believe that Viola is here in Newington!” I was somewhat stunned, but not surprised. Although I don’t look a thing like Viola Davis aside from my skin color I have been somehow been mistaken for; Oprah, Whoopi and Halle Berry to name a few. Later, as I was discussing the movie we had just seen with my family the same woman came up to me again insisting that I was Viola Davis. Both times my attitude was conciliatory, but …

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When A Thing of Beauty May Not Be a Joy

by W.D. Ehrhart I’ve been writing poetry since I was 15 years old. I’ve written hundreds of poems over more than a half century. That’s a lot of poems and a long time. But no poem of mine has ever troubled me more or caused me more difficulty than this one: Old Men Eating Lunch for Paige Once a month my pals and I eat lunch at the Amish Market in Mullica Hill. We chose that place because the food is cheap. And good. But we keep coming back to see the waitress. She’s always there, month after month, and such a lovely girl, always …

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Nation Spared Colossal Tragedy

Judging from the news reports, it could have been tragic: “Rainbow fentanyl,” produced by evil drug lords, handed out like candy to unsuspecting children from coast to coast. Halloween, 2022 was threatening to become the most tragic holiday since…. Well, since New Years Day, 2000, when, after months of breathless reporting and endless speculation about civilization grinding to a halt. When 1999 ended and 2000 began, as cable TV anchors held their breath…computers kept running and the world kept spinning. It turns out the programmers running the mainframes knew their jobs and how to do them. The true catastrophe of the year 2000 came in …

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Sun, Nov 6

2018—Nevada’s 36th district elects brothel-owner Dennis Hoff to the State Assembly by a huge margin. He’s been dead for three weeks. 2016—FBI Director James Comey says never mind about those emails. 2012—Trump tweets, “The electoral college is a disaster for a democracy.” 2000—Saddam Hussein stops accepting dollars for oil, thus undermining U.S. hegemony and possibly shortening his own life. 1998—Newt Gingrich says he’s resigning as Speaker of the House because he’s “not willing to preside over people who are cannibals.” 1984—Reagan defeats Mondale—it’s mourning in America. 1971—The AEC detonates a 5-megaton nuke—the largest ever exploded in the U.S.—one mile below Amchitka Island, 87 miles from …

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A Little Inconvenient History

It’s an odd contradiction. From airplanes to zippers, we USAians* are quick to boast of our countrymen’s inventions. That eagerness is conspicuously absent, though, when it comes to one particular political innovation. This mystery becomes all the more curious when one considers that fascism is enjoying a worldwide revival. What’s that you say? It’s news to you that the U.S.A. played a central role in the development of fascism? Don’t feel bad. It was news to us, too. When you think about it, though, it’s no wonder we’re surprised. Will Rogers†—whose career just happened to be in full flourish simultaneous with fascism’s first wave, despite …

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