Animals
“Cats Are Supermodels” is like “Marley & Me” for cats. Like supermodels, cats are beautiful, sleek, self-centered, moody, aloof, usually sleepy, always hungry, but rarely willing to eat what’s put before them. Sometimes worshipped, sometimes reviled, cats combine grace, stealth, agility and cunning to emerge as America’s most
Mummers
While most of us are busy buying gifts for loved ones in the holiday season, several thousand of our neighbors are preparing a gift for Greater Philadelphia — the 120th Mummers Parade. There are about 10,000 people in the parade: Musicians, dancers, merry-makers, marshalls, directors, you name it. Organizing it
Politics
Impeachment has barely begun and if you’ve been following it, as I have, you are probably sick of it. In order to wrap my mental arms around it, I turned to a primer by Ellie Silverman, that answered a question I had, one that opens a page to a
Police
After his daily 4 a.m. gym workout, Mike Chitwood is sipping a cuppa joe at a Hilton Head, S.C., Dunkin’ Donuts when he sees a violation of what the 75-year-old cop calls “community relations 101.” A sheriff’s officer comes in — “vest, gun, taser, handcuffs — who did not
Cartoon
Maybe “bonus” is not really the right word, but I do share most of these columns on Facebook — but not all. I am not sharing this one, hence “bonus.” If you are new here, the Bykofsky Rule is this: If it makes me laugh, I use it. No political litmus
Uncategorized
The Day of Infamy turns me toward thinking about the Navy, Our Navy, and what it needs for the future. I know some of the regulars here are swabbies. Going into WWII, the modern navy needed battleships, even though Billy Mitchell had already proved the massive battlewagons were vulnerable to
Capitalism
Dear Jeff Bezos: Surprisingly, we have some things in common: You are believed to be the richest person in the world. I am believed to be the richest person on the 26th floor. You run Amazon. I run this website. You have an estimated $112 billion and you make $215
Uncategorized
Let’s talk about climate change. Don’t get hot under the collar. This won’t take very long and it won’t be too deep. A popular talking point on right-wing cable TV (looking at Russian sock pupp et Tucker Carlson) is how the crazy environmentalists want to ground
Uncategorized
The reason a handful of protesters showed up in front of Boyd’s Center City store on Black Friday is “because every day is black for animals used for their fur,” says Marianne Bessey, manager of campaigns for PETA — People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. [Disclosure: I am a
Politics
My family was immune from the verbal pyrotechnics that sometimes plague the major clan-gathering events at year’s end — Thanksgiving and Christmas. Why? We celebrated neither. We were not anti-American. We were Jewish and while you may understand us not hoisting a Christmas tree (although some of us did), many
Police
“There is no such thing as racism.” A ludicrous statement. Here’s another: “Everything is racist.” No one says those words, but it is evident in the way some people reach for the R-word with no actual evidence. I’ll give you a recent example, one that comes from — brace
Politics
As the clock ticked toward 4 p.m., Ambassador Gordon Sondland looked like he needed a double scotch and a full body massage. After a full day of hearings, what I am hearing is that President Trump ordered military aid withheld until Ukraine ordered an investigation into corruption, which included