Have a heart. The July 4 season is just about on us, and what we see and hear is the proliferation of fireworks, both legal and illegal. For the next week or […]
Retorts: Time of the rockets’ red scares
Retorts: Wear your achievements proudly
Note: This is a classic Retorts column from 2011, originally published in the old Garden Grove Journal. History is full of the exploits of great leaders, warriors and scientists. Society rewards them […]
Retorts: New birth in the old home town
A decade or so ago, the city launched a public relations campaign for the Big Strawberry called “Renaissance Garden Grove.” It was well-intentioned but clunky, and never really got much traction. But […]
Retorts: Cruising back into my history
One of the strange new cultural phenomena of the present day is the turning away of newer generations from the car culture, which had been a focus of Americana for nearly a […]
Retorts: The up side of feeling down
All things considered, there are a lot of good things about feeling bad. I don’t mean a life-wrecking tragedy, or an arrow in your foot. I’m thinking more about your garden-variety stomach […]
Retorts: Crime-fighting is not just for cops
This column is about broken windows. Oh, go ahead and read it anyway. If you’re hip to criminology or urban history, you might know that the “broken windows” theory of crime – […]
Retorts: What I’ve learned over that hill
I am at a stage in my life where I spend a fair amount of time asking myself, “What have I learned?’ When I have lunch with old pals, I raise the […]
Retorts: Warring symbols recall Cold War
Communism in theory is one of the dumbest ideas ever advanced by man, and in practice, one of the most vicious. History tends to point to Adolph Hitler and the Nazis as […]
Retorts: News takes on a different shape
There was once a “war” in Orange County that lasted for years before petering out as both combatants were overtaken by a new and more powerful force. A signpost of that former […]
Retorts: Getting ahead of the curves
One of my favorite books is an overlooked classic from 1991 titled “If It Ain’t Broke, Break It,” by Robert Kriegel. This little gem places emphasis on the wisdom of anticipating change […]
