Oct 12, 1948–May 3, 2022
“If I am not for myself,
who will be for me?
And, if I am only for myself,
what am I?
And if not now,
when?”
–Hillel, the great sage.
Featured
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LSD Goddess Joanna Harcourt-Smith
Timothy Leary wrote me from his jail cell. The adjoining cell contained Charles Manson. Shortly after I received the letter, I visited Timothy next to the vending machines. I had spent months squiring around the beautiful, French speaking socialite Joanna Harcourt-Smith who was next to Timothy in Kabul, Afghanistan when G.Gordon Liddy, on urgent orders from Richard Nixon, arrested Timothy. I regarded the interview as one last chance for Timothy to demonstrate that he was not a total and complete horse’s ass. The only reason I had stayed around the Leary entourage was Joanna with whom I was head over heals in love. Joanna and I had made love while peaking on Owsley’s LSD. After that, there was no turning back. It was Timothy or me. Foolishly, Joanna picked Timothy.
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Ani Ma’Amin: This is what I believe
Most recently, my “expertise” has resulted in my efforts to affirm Eli Weisel’s insistance that being a Jew ( surrounded as I had been in the 1950s by tattooed survivors of the Holocaust) requires us as Jews to end genocide of whatever form; specifically in Yemen, the Mayanmar region of what used to be Burma, Venezuela ( most especially on the Western border in Colombia) the Sudan, and ….
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Rethinking Jabotinsky who helped create the State of Israel
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If you are a grandparent, you have to read Andy Slavitt’s book PREVENTABLE
My fourth grandchild Jacob— two months old— is arriving today after a 12 hour drive from the Marine base in North Carolina where he lives with his parents. Jacob will need to read Andy Slavitt’s book first thing to prepare for the future. Wikipedia: “Andrew M. Slavitt is an American businessman and healthcare advisor who served […]
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Yair Lapid, architect of the new Israeli government
On Sunday June 11th the new government of Israel which Yair Lapid crafted will dispose of Benjamin Nitanyahu, Israel’s longest serving prime minister known as the magician for his ability to form working majorities in the Kenesset. Now Lapid has become Israel’s magician. Perhaps, quite relevant is that the media ( e.g. NBC and PBS ) have reported President Biden and Lapid know each other well and are united in their hatred of Bibi.
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Five Hours a Day in the Saddle: The Pacific Coast School of Horsemanship ( written for the San Francisco Chronicle in 1972; never published; now at age 73 the article I wrote when I was 22)
When I interviewed her she was preparing for a three way trip to Germany. There she was collaborating with Ursula Bruns on a book on the do’s and don’ts of riding.Linda also was plannng an equestrian trek through the Alps, having aleady ridden in the Arctic Cicle an the Sierras.
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Remembering Jean and Marvin Staiman and their love of Israel
The void my synagogue is experiencing as a result of Marvin’s death concerns those actions Marvin regarded as essential to his view of what it means to be a Jew. For one thing, being a Jew for Marvin meant praying to God in Hebrew and Aramaic (the language of Jesus). The second requirement, even more significant than Hebrew prayer, is working to preserve the State of Israel. Eretz (land of) Yisrael (Israel).
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Laugh and weep: NURSING HOMES BY JOHN OLIVER
“We do need to do something. And it all starts with showing we give a shit about what happens to the elderly and people with disabilities in this country. Cause evidence points the the fact that we absolutely don’t.”
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1971 birthday letter to my father
