May 13, 2023 Dear Mendel, The governor of Florida is busy campaigning to stop WOKE behavior and WOKE ideas as he prepares to run for President of the United States. He pushed a Stop Woke Act (Stop Wrongs to Our Kids and Employees) through the Florida legislature that basically bans…

April 15, 2023 Dear Mendel, “When you’re a Jet you’re a Jet all the way!” “I like to be in America, O.K. by me in America, Everything free in America.” “A boy like that will give you sorrow, you’ll meet another boy tomorrow.” “We ain’t no delinquents, we’re misunderstood, deep…

I recently saw an exhibit of Ernest Cole’s photography from South Africa and the United States at the FOAM photography museum in Amsterdam. Ernest Levi Tsoloane Cole was born in South Africa in 1940 and died in New York City in 1990. Cole became politicized at a young age. He…

One of the highlights of my recent trip to France was a visit to the Loire Valley Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise. …

When my brother and I were growing up in the 1950s, my father would not buy German products. In the 1960s, when the Volkswagen Beetle and flower-power mini-bus were popular, we were told never to buy German cars because Germany was never to be forgiven for the Holocaust and World…

Dear Mendel, I think it was 1968, but it might have been 1969, I was standing on an overturned garbage can near the City College library shouting that students had to walk out on strike. There were a lot of issues those day. This one was probably cops on campus…

I’m an atheist, but I love to visit old churches and cathedrals when I travel, for their beauty, peacefulness, and history. When you visit them, you understand why medieval Europeans thought they were holy sites where their prayers to God might be answered. In a smelly world, the air inside…

It’s 1968 again in Paris. Days before the start of Spring, Revolution is in the air along with the slight aroma of garbage. A strike by garbage collectors in about half of the city is scheduled to continue at least until Monday. …

Lots of really great stolen stuff at the Louvre in Paris. They should rename the museum Musée du Louvre de l’Impérialisme. The museum is a former palace built on top of an old castle that was built on top of a medieval fortress. …