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ON TYRANNY, short and wry lessons from the 20th Century to preserve your liberty. I published this review in 2018. It bears considering again.

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"... the precedent set by the Founders demands that we examine history to understand the deep sources of tyranny, and to consider the proper responses to it. Americans today are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to facism, Nazism, or communism in the twentieth century. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. Now is a good time to do so." --Tim Snyder "Mr. Snyder is a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present." --The New York Times This little book of 126 pages succeeds in connecting our time with what went before. In short essays astute, wry and instructive, it lets you know what has happened, where we are and what one person of conscience can do. Here are snippets from Topics.  1. DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE Anticipatory obedience is a political tragedy. 2. DEFEND INSTITUTIONS Do not speak of "our institutions" unless you make them yours by action on their beha...
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Status Codes in COLORED TELEVISION and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. Do markers of success define fate or not?

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                               Colored Television and Pride and Prejudice I read  Colored Television by Danzy Senna and  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin for two different book groups. It was surprising that the plots of these books, a hundred years apart, seemed to hinge on similar status codes. Though the personal stakes were different.  The Bennett sisters, Elizabeth and Jane, heroines of Pride and Prejudice,  navigated the Bristish aristocracy's marriage market, while Jane and Lenny, the talented African American couple in Colored Television  chased careers in Los Angeles' media markets. Both sets of contenders must crack social codes to gain entry, aware that perceived status can make or break their future prospects. Indicators of status for both included desirable neighborhoods and residences, clothes, physical attractiveness, well-born or estimable fri...
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"The Ziggerty Zagetty Road of a D-Kid" (Dyslexia) by Gea Meijering , illustrations by Mads Johan Ogaard

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Multicultural Children's Book Day passed my reviewer info to Gea Meijering, author of  a useful amusing book about Kees, a kid who can't write two pages in four hours. His best friend, Pete, knocks out his essay in a half hour and is ready for outside fun and games, pranks and adventures. Pete and him are a team! In 4th grade, they had to make a paper mache volcano. Kees made the volcano and Pete wrote the journal. But in 5th, last year in elementary school, there's more writing to be done "separately". Kees knows he's falling behind in his classes. He dreads being called-on to read. He tries to decipher a paragraph two pages ahead, and hopes for a picture to help him make sense, but then stutters amid laughter, though there's Pete's encouraging "thumbs up." Dyslexia is the issue. The two friends have fun doing what they do best, that's not sitting in class. Kees knows he can build things, figure out ways to navigate his issue, like weari...
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Before it completely disappears (again), a review of SKYSCRAPER, a gem of a musical revival centered on NYC real estate.

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Life scrolls ever more quickly. It's almost January 2025 yet I still recall the surprise of SKYSCRAPER (Urban Stages November 7-17, 2024), the freshness of this 1960s piece (book by Peter Stone, lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by James Van Heusen.)  After many years of existing only in memory and writing, this  SKYSCRAPER  was the first live onstage revival, since its Broadway debut in 1965.  Multiple collaborators-- Regeneration Theatre , Combustion Collective and Nelda Yaw Buckman  wanted to produce this show, a short run in a small storefront theater on 30th St. Why? This was not a showcase for a bigger production. Economies of scale enriched the focus of this show, on target for its era and ours. Groups dancing seemed to defy our time and the small stage.   SKYSCRAPER was a successful musical with 248 performances, 5 Tony nominations, including "Best Musical." The ballad, "I'll only miss her when I think of her, " was a hit for Sina...
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Gifted women and sexuality in classics--ARIANE, a girl who plays a "man's game" and FALLING, a mature woman "played" in a conman's lethal game,

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ARIANE  a Russian Girl  by Claude Anet  (New York Review of Books ) is set in 1920s provincial Russia, though its teen heroine's attitude toward men is pure pop diva. Yet in this time and place, men might rule women from birth to death, but Ariane's life was her own. Her aunt may be an influence, a rare educated woman and a physician, who's chosen to pursue a happy single life.. Then past 40, Ariane is shocked to see her proud aunt humilated, ruined by "romantic love." Weaponizing her beauty and intelligence,  Ariane becomes popular among men of her class, young and old with money and titles, who assume she is marriageable. Yet, the only expectations she entertains are to pursue her education at the university in Moscow.  When her final exams are "brilliant," and she's accepted by the elite Moscow university, Ariane's thrilled, though her father to pay.  He demands she arrive at his home and prepare to marry his friend. Legally, at 17, Ariane...
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The Coat Check Girl -Laura Buchwald's otherworldly tale, set in classic restaurants in NYC and New Orleans, where love and retribution enmesh the living and dead.

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  THE COAT CHECK GIRL by Laura Buchwald (10/22, Roan & Weatherford) is an absorbing metaphysical mystery set in 1999 New York City, with Y2K fears of computer collapse. At the "Bistrot," long a downtown destination,  the "countdown" underscored the staff's insecurity about the restaurant's future. Despite the rich mahogany and red leather booths, business was down, despite regulars of many years, tourists, and occasional  celebrities, like John F/ Kennedy Jr. and his lovely wife. Such visits were decreasing, thought Josie, as she surveyed the empty room. It was early yet and she thought with compassions of Sylvie, a regular, who seemed to be teetering on senility, mixing up the present and yesteryear.  Jose's welcome was warm and professional. She was quick to see to customers' needs. And she was cheerful, despite her own anxiety. At 29, Josie mourned her lost dreams for a fuller life. She was not the only one. Many of the older staff, identified...
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EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME by Peter Cherches, when truth is a funny thing-- surrealistic microfictions of daily life. (9/12 Pelekinesis)

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                                                                   "Bagatelles" a minimalist novel, one of five short prose  sequences, was published in Peter Cherches' 2013 collection " Lift Your Right Arm , was first published with other microfictions in Cherches' uniquely inspired 1986 collection,  Condensed book.  What we now think of as  "Flash Fiction" in Cherches' explorations conjure the humorous uncanny experiences of being alive, a person in a body on this planet--with the concision of a 30-second advertising spot.  In EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME  ( September 12, Pelekinesis Books) Cherches' work explores the surreality of everyday situations that are and aren't what you think. Suppose, out of the corner of your eye, you glimpse something you can'...
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