If it’s an even-numbered year, it must be time for election mania. Candidates are throwing their baseball caps into the ring, and interesting matchups are developing. On Wednesday, former state Assemblyman Tom […]
Umberg vs. Nguyen in senate battle?
Retorts: Cruel dilemma of guns in the U.S.
Editor’s note: Jim Tortolano wrote this column in October 2017 after the Las Vegas killings. He thinks it’s still appropriate in the wake of today’s mass shooting at a school in Florida. […]
Retorts: Maybe it’s time to pay to play
Sometimes what you don’t see is more intriguing than what you do. On Wednesday, at the “State of the City” address by Garden Grove Mayor Steve Jones, much was made of the […]
Retorts: Fighting cold with old medicine
The nation is in the grip of a flu epidemic. Always preferring to do things on a small scale, I’ve got a pretty persistent cold. In each case, although there’s only so […]
Retorts: Welcome to your Bizarro World!
If you ever read comic books as a kid – or do now – you might be familiar with “Bizarro World.” That’s a place in the Superman stories in which a mutant […]
Retorts: Here’s what you should resolve
One of the biggest clichés of January is the New Year’s resolution thing. Quitting smoking. Losing weight. Stop procrastinating. Clearing out the clutter. Stop being so negative. And on and on. The […]
Retorts: The shape of things to look for
This is the time of year in which a lot of journalists spill a lot of ink (in today’s terms, also, electrons) reflecting sonorously on the months past. But, heck, anyone can […]
Retorts: We need a new Bill of Writes
Editor’s note: In last week’s column, Jim pointed out the things that citizens can do to make their communities better. This week, a big – but inexpensive – idea about how government […]
Retorts: Willing to get out and push?
One of the reasons that the Germans failed on the western front during World War II, and the Americans advanced, was as simple as getting up off your duff. By 1941-45, war […]
Retorts: Two old and new “places to be”
The past may live on forever in the South, but here on the West Coast in general and in Orange County in particular, it disappears storefront by storefront. Two iconic eateries in […]
