Watching Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) go after Dr. Anthony Fauci last week about his suggested measures to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, one witnessed a truly tiny and narrowly focused mind attempting to go up against a large, deep and supple mind.

What Jordan blathered about hardly merits repetition because we’ve heard it all before, ad nauseam — the clumsy attempts to create straw man arguments about “freedom,” the ad hominem attacks implying that Fauci is somehow manipulating data about the pandemic for some personal gain, the whining about being asked to be reasonably responsible during a global health crisis that…

I recently had the opportunity to spend some time observing people arriving to get vaccinated for the coronavirus. I volunteered, in a non-clinical role, to help out at a local large-scale effort where the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine was being administered at a recreation center in a park in a suburban area of St. Louis county.

I hesitated in writing this because I didn’t want to be seen as “virtue signaling” or humblebragging or whatever the put-down term might be. I had received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine and had been impressed by all the people at…

Former Twitter user Donald Trump has taken to sending old-fashioned missives to the world from “The Office of Donald J. Trump” on letterhead that bears the Great Seal of the United States. It’s the one you know well, with the bald eagle clutching in its talons the olive branches and the 13 arrows and, in its beak, a ribbon with the country’s motto, E Pluribus Unum — ”From many, one” or, more simply, “one from many.”

It’s not surprising that Trump is using a round logo that resembles the Presidential Seal, which may or may not be legal, but, putting…

Some men may be rightly concerned with cuckolding — of being cheated on by their wife. And when I say rightly, that was only meant to get your attention; what I mean is that a fair number of men of the right, so-called family-value conservatives, cannot seem to stop calling others “cucks.” Even before the QAnon derangement cult geared up online, Republicans were labelling their opponents pedophiles.

Cucks and pedophiles seem to weigh heavily on the minds of the right.

So, what do QAnon-ers say about Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who we learned this week has been under Department of…

On his CNN series Tucci proves himself an engaging and knowledgeable guide to the regions of Italy.

Can actor/director/foodie Stanley Tucci carry on in the spirit of Anthony Bourdain? After watching just a few episodes of “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy,” in its first season on CNN, I’m persuaded by Tucci’s mellifluous voice, his New Yorker chutzpah (though now a denizen of London), his obvious love of food and his own cooking chops (he’s written a couple of cookbooks, one with his wife, Felicity Blunt), and his curiosity about the world.

You want your travel guide to be more than…

I’d often wondered about the map of Manhattan my wife’s maternal grandfather had carried with him on a visit to the city as a young man.

Because I had so admired the old pocket map, and because we had once lived in the city ourselves — I had gone there to study acting through New York University and, a few years later, when my desire to make a career in acting had waned, we had married there, in Central Park, within sight of The Plaza Hotel — Jyll had it carefully mounted and framed as a gift to me one…

How can we encourage Republicans to do the right thing?

Despite alleged political games playing out in various states, the rollout of the Covid-19 vaccines is going reasonably well in the United States. As of this writing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. has delivered 113 million shots of vaccine and is currently providing 2.4 million shots a day. Some 74 million (22%) have received one dose and nearly 40 million (12%) are now fully vaccinated.

As of Tuesday, because of my cardiovascular condition, I am one of them. …

With Governor Greg Abbott this week declaring Texas “100% open for business” during the continuing pandemic, “the Six Flags over Texas” has hoisted a seventh, the Flag of Truculent Stupidity.

As of this writing, a mere 7% of Texans have been fully vaccinated, and the state ranks 48th in getting the vaccine into people’s arms. Three known coronavirus variants — B.1.1.7 (first seen in the U.K.), B.1.351 (South Africa), and P.1 (Brazil) — are faster spreaders, likely more deadly, and making their presence known in the United States, along with new variants now emerging here.

So, is the governor celebrating…