GRACIE’S CONFESSION
Now that my memoir, The Wit and Wisdom of Gracie, has been out for a while, it has been pointed out to me that it’s missing something commonly seen in memoirs – confessions of scandalous exploits in my life. Apparently,
THE BLACK AND WHITE OF US
The police in South Florida who used the mugshots of black teens, taken years ago when the teens were arrested, didn’t see any problem in using the photos for target practice. They never considered that those boys are now men
NEW RULES FOR 2015
Now that we’re midway into the first month of the new year and many people are remembering why it’s usually a bad idea to make resolutions, since they tend to have a short shelf life, I think it’s a good
SONY, THE HACKERS, AND THE MOVIE
Now that people can see The Interview — which I think everyone agrees is a good thing, since retreating in the face of threats is never admirable — we can finally hear what the public thinks of the actual movie
THE RIVER OF MEMORY
This is an article I wrote for Life magazine in 2006 when it was a weekend supplement in many newspapers. I wrote it on the second anniversary of my father’s death. Someone on Twitter just asked me about it, and
DEAR SASHA AND MALIA
Dear Sasha and Malia, Here is a story you might find interesting given the latest unprovoked (and undeserved) attack on you by Elizabeth Lauten, who I, by the way, had never heard of before. When my father was president there
FERGUSON
When the L.A. riots happened after the Rodney King verdict, I was in New York on a book tour. The woman who was house-sitting for me told me how scared she was, even though my house was many miles from
BILL COSBY
When my father was in the last stages of Alzheimer’s, Bill Cosby came to visit my mother (and me, as it turned out — I was there that day.) It must have been around 2002 because my father was already
THE WIT AND WISDOM OF GRACIE (excerpt)
Imagine what the world would be like if everyone thought like me. If humans believed in submission as an appropriate gesture when first meeting a stranger and practiced it as the art form it is. The planet would be a
Quarantined in the Time of Fear
In Albert Camus’ novel The Plague, the French town of Oran is quarantined when people start dying from bubonic plague. No one can leave the town; no one from outside can get in. Families are torn apart, lovers are separated.