A new book by Terry Golway on the developing Democratic party through the lens of F.D.R. and Al Smith Frank and Al: FDR, Al Smith, and the Unlikely Alliance and Epic Feud that Created the Modern Democratic Party by Terry Golway allows readers to see the massive change to the Democratic party that both Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Al Smith ushered in during the mid- 20th … [Read more...] about Frank & Al
The First Word: Shall We Ever Overcome?
My English brother-in-law once asked me if I had anything happy to write about. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, the world has enough happiness in it without our having to read about it in magazines, but I know what he means. I wish I could devote this space to waxing lyrical about our Top 100: How their success contrasts with the snuggles of earlier generations. And how some of … [Read more...] about The First Word: Shall We Ever Overcome?
The Greatest Irish Rock Albums of the Last Millennium!!!
By Tom Dunphy
April / May 2000
Gotcha. There was a craze afoot at the end of the last century -- gosh, doesn't that sound strange, especially since it was a mere couple of months ago -- to list things. It seemed like everything -- books, films, plays, albums, inventions, historical events -- got categorized, ranked, compared, collated, crunched, and spat out... The very notion of a "greatest Irish rock … [Read more...] about The Greatest Irish Rock Albums of the Last Millennium!!!
The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
On a plane to San Francisco a young couple sit across from me with two boys. The younger one is kicking up a ruckus. As I reach for my ear-plugs I hear the wife say something to her husband, a trendy fellow with glasses and an earring. "Big Ian" she calls him. Belfast, I think to myself. The accent is that of my sister-in-law Elaine. That this family is from Northern Ireland … [Read more...] about The First Word: A Little Boy’s Cry
The First Word: Payback Time
The Ireland I grew up in was doubtful of its own identity. The school curriculum reflected a post-colonial lack of confidence and ignored Irish poets and prose writers in favor of English scribes. While I'm grateful for the grounding I was given in Shakespeare and the like, I mourn the fact that the words of Yeats will never come trippingly off the tongue like say, the poems … [Read more...] about The First Word: Payback Time