Ben Ferencz is the last Nuremberg prosecutor alive: “War makes murderers of decent people. All wars and all people.”

Benjamin Ferencz   On Christmas 1945, Ferencz was honorably discharged from the Army with the rank of Sergeant. He returned to New York, but was recruited only a few weeks later to participate as a prosecutor in the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials in the legal team of Telford Taylor. Taylor appointed him Chief Prosecutor in the …

GRAND CANYON

There is a scene early in Grand Canyon (1991) where the car of an immigration lawyer, Mack (played by Kevin Klein) dies in a neighborhood he doesn't know. He calls for a tow, but in the meantime a group of young men begin harassing him. Danny Glover's character, Simon, shows up and calmly begins his job, asking …

MOM at the BEACH

My mother was named "Fay" for her mother's first name and "Gordon" for her father. Born in 1925, she died in 2007. She and her sister spent all the summers of their childhood at the beach house, which my grandfather rebuilt and retired to in the 40s. Mom said she and her sister cried when …

Kamala Harris: “America does not want to witness a food fight. They want to know how we are going to put food on their table.”

HEDGE

There is a hedge in front of our house, what we call the "front" because the ocean is too vast to be anyone's backyard. The hedge is mostly salal that grows wild. The local rose, which is thorny and has dark pink flowers the size of quarters, is native too. The cultivar montbrecia, which will pop …

FINISH

The plan was to put down a cheap floor and then after our sons graduated from college we would spring for hardwood. A contractor suggested particleboard, sealed and oiled. The look was not what I was after. I chose A-face half-inch fir plywood. The A face is solid, with knots filled. It is not expensive—as …

DAWN

Last night someone was blasting (illegal) fireworks at 10pm. Explosions in the dark—oh what fun . . . for someone. A month or so ago visitors complained to us about construction noise from a remodel across the street from their rental that prevented them from sleeping in past 8:30am. We smiled and exchanged looks. This …

A TASTE FOR SWEET

My mother was pleased to read that as we age we lose our taste for sweet. She had a powerful sweet tooth and hoped this aging side effect would lesson her desire for cake and snickerdoodles. Alas, as she discovered later, the change in taste is not that we care less for sweet as we …

DRONES

When I was a girl, my dad built gliders and small free-flight model planes. We joined other enthusiasts and took them far out in the country to a grassy field. Some people had remote control and could turn their craft, the chassis a foot or a bit longer. My dad's went up and then came …

SPRING

We have been busy this morning: I baked a pie, Gary did laundry, we picked up the mail, I read aloud, but first thing this morning we enjoyed a nearly a three-hour walk. We walked from spring right into summer at 8:54AM. Today is the first day of summer and the morning sky showed cobblestones …