Dr. ESP Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness. — Oscar Wilde And no one is better at imitation than Hollywood. Consider the following. In 1940, MGM released The Shop Around the Corner starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. In 1949, MGM remakes this story about anonymous pen pals who work side by … Read more
In the 1991 movie Other People’s Money, Lawrence “The Liquidator” Garfield, played by Danny DeVito, selects a struggling family-run business in a small Rhode Island town as his next target. I was reminded of this semi-successful film (Roger Ebert gave it 3.5 our of five stars) as I read a series of news articles this morning … Read more
Today’s edition of the Washington Post (Sunday, April 9, 2019) included an interview with King Adbullah II of Jordan, conducted by senior associate editor Lally Weymouth. Midway through the exchange, the topic turned to Russia’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Q. Do you want to see the U.S. engage with Russia over Syria? A. … Read more
One of the fundamental tenets of counter-intuitive thinking requires individuals to make sure they are asking the right questions before seeking the right answers. Sadly, this is something the corporate news media did not understand concerning their coverage of Thursday night’s U.S. missile attack on Al Shayrat Airfield. Over the past 36 hours, print … Read more
On March 19, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah introduced a new segment titled “Ain’t No One Got Time for That,” the premise being how to cover all the idiocy coming out of Washington and the alt-right every day in one 21 minute program. Noah would barely get into a topic before being interrupted by … Read more