by Dr. Jeffrey Lant . Author’s program note. I wrote this article because of the appalling news emanating from one of the greatest institutions of the Great Republic, namely the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Founded in 1780 by three of the titans of the American Revolution, scholar-patriots John Adams, John Hancock, and James …
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author’s program note. Remember Leona Helmsley (1920-2007), widely known as “the Queen of Mean”? She had the great good fortune to marry one of the Great Republic’s richest men, hotelier Harry Helmsley… which she thought conferred on her God’s permission to belittle, disdain, demean, denigrate all the “little people” of her …
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author’s program note. I was thinking of the Honorable Barack today and of how chagrined and irritated he must be these days. After all, having enjoyed the good fortune of drawing the hapless and terminally awkward Mitt-ster for his presidential opponent in 2012 and so walzing into a second term, he …
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author’s program note. Oh, my, she was angry, angry to the point of bursting, to the point of indiscretion, even scandal. And so she let fly a cascade of hot words, each one hotter and less controlled than the last. It was a bravura performance… a rip snorter of a complaint …
Author’s program note. I knew I would go to Harvard Commencement this year after I read a disconcerting article in The Boston Globe some months ago. It cited the opposition of certain alumni to having Miss Oprah Winfrey as this year’s principal speaker and honorary degree recipient, Harvard’s chief honor. Their argument went something like …
Author’s program note. It is 5:35 a.m. here in Cambridge and the day threatens to be gray, overcast and wet (at least so far), not up to the radiant holiday standard we’re used to on a plu-perfect springtime day. But the scene outside my window is evocative and even solemn, the light filtered, the …
Author’s program note. These are troubling days in the heart of what was once one of the grandest and most civilized of kingdoms… for Hungary was all that and more, a people of the highest culture, sophisticated, masters of every refined nuance of the art of living; a life-enhancing people, exuberant, with a zest all …
Author’s program note. I was sitting in the barber shop the other day when I saw two beautiful television anchors discussing the little faux pas made by Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael S. Jeffries an acknowledged powerhouse in the business of making people, but only certain people, the cynosure of every eye. It is a …
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author’s program note. Let’s be clear about something right from the start: the current scandal at the Internal Revenue Service is by no means the worst the agency has endured… yet at any rate. The IRS has a scrapbook full of more abashing moments and grim memories of things they shouldn’t …
by Dr. Jeffrey Lant. Author’s program note. On February 7, 1839 one of the greatest of senators, Henry Clay of Kentucky, gave one of his most important of speeches… and in the process he handed his numerous detractors just what they needed to ridicule him for the rest of his life. (1777-1852) His remarks …