October 26, 2023 US President Joe Biden has declared himself a `war president.’ He has ordered two US aircraft carriers, advanced missile systems and 2,000 Marines to the Mideast. It’s full-force war fever in Washington. Does this seem like overkill considering Hamas has not much more than lightly armed teenagers […]
31 December 2016 One of my favorite literary expressions is the term ‘Parthian shaft.’ It refers to the favored tactic of the Parthians, a Persian people, of turning while on horseback and firing arrows while retreating. The Roman consul Crassus, who defeated Spartacus, may have died from such a Parthian […]
26 November 2016 Sixty years ago, I was home after school, sitting in our living room on New York’s Central Park West, reading a history of Rome and listening to Dvorak’s splendid cello concerto when the announcer on WQXR broke in to announced, “Israeli armored forces are thrusting deep into […]
