ArcaMax

If 100 can be said to be the new 70, Lieutenant Alfred D. Benjamin of the Army Air Corps' 384th Bomb Group has to be the expression's poster boy. Ramrod-straight and sharp as the proverbial tack, the Canton, Massachusetts, centenarian is as smart as the salute he gives as he finishes an interview about his service as a B-17 navigator flying 31...Read more

Here we are in Times Square. Maniac lights flash across all horizons. Minnie Mouse and Spider-Man are making the rounds. Packed tour buses inch below the scary headlines orbiting the ABC News building.

And it's only 9:30 on a Monday morning.

But on West 43rd Street, about a block from the heart of chaos, the school day has started on an ...Read more

Many of us celebrated Mother's Day over the weekend by remembering or being present with women who raised us, or with our families. But for the more than 190,000 women incarcerated in the United States this weekend, there was no celebration.

Close to 60% of these women serving prison sentences were the primary caregiver of their minor ...Read more

There are no good answers to the current situation in the Gaza War. President Joe Biden is trying to use a pause in weapons shipments to force Israel to do more to protect civilians against "collateral damage" that a bombing campaign in Rafah would no doubt entail. But United States military officials admit that that is easier said than done. ...Read more

It is a truism bordering on a cliche that the Israeli state and Palestinian resistance organizations have inflicted violence upon each other, claiming the lives of thousands of innocent people on both sides. Media coverage of the carnage has been anything but evenhanded, however.

Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, Western media ...Read more

Nobody likes Big Oil, a monopolistic and heavily polluting industry with a legendary history of abusing its excessive power that can be traced back over the past hundred years.

But Donald Trump has promised to be the oil industry's best friend -- if its bosses give him a billion dollars.

In the latest instance of the former president's mind-...Read more

Erma Bombeck was right when she said, "It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else." I thought of this quote when my friend Gina Barreca recently asked on social media, "Writers: Why is it hard to hit 'send' even after all these years?"

Barreca has written or edited about 20 books, has written countless columns and she's Board...Read more

I hope someday to be 100 and writing myself a birthday column, but I'm a ways from that event.

What I am is 67 and writing myself a birthday column, which is serious enough. I've been writing this column for 15 years now, and that also seems like a serious number.

Hell, they're all serious numbers. The number of years you are when you get ...Read more

Is it fair to ask teenagers to give up sports and parties to care for parents or other older relatives? That's an important question these days, because so many now do.

The Wall Street Journal reported on a 15-year-old high school kid, Leo Remis, who is helping his disabled mother. Leo flexes her muscles to prevent blood clots. When her hands...Read more

She came out of the bathroom and he had stripped down to his underwear. He was waiting for her on the bed. He didn't ask about using a condom, and he didn't use one. Afterward, her hands were shaking so badly she couldn't fasten the straps on her shoes. She didn't say no, but then she didn't say yes either. No nonconsent, but a clear imbalance...Read more

You know the way Shakespeare created a portrait of a family's hard feelings in King Lear, his tragedy about a raging, storming English king with three daughters? That play, set in Gloucester, speaks to me now of how Congress and the country are falling apart.

It even takes me back to the Civil War.

Shakespeare got it right. Conflicts and ...Read more

Woe is us (the American people) for having our jewel of a national Postal Service saddled with a corporate-minded postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. Formerly CEO of a private shipping contractor, DeJoy's chief qualification for running this invaluable public service is that he's been a major donor to Republican politicians -- including Donald ...Read more

In 2023, Kansas enacted a law attempting to define "transgender" out of existence by restricting the definition of a "woman" to the biological function of producing ova. Not only does this definition negate the experiences of trans women and girls, but it also excludes entire categories of women who are not transgender, such as post-menopausal...Read more

A favorite quote from the recent campus conflicts comes from Adam Young, a freshman at the New School in New York. After student trespassers were arrested and hauled to police headquarters, he complained, "This is not OK ... We're 18 years old."

Adam, there are 17-year-old Marines.

The pro-Palestinian protestors have every right to rail ...Read more

I read all the updates from the reporters in the court room. But it just isn't the same as watching it yourself.

I want to actually see it. I want to see how Donald Trump reacts when he hears his former aides testify. I want to hear for myself the testimony of the witnesses against him, and the cross-examination. I want to judge for myself ...Read more

There are more Democrats than Republicans, more liberals than conservatives, more progressives than MAGAs. But you'd never know that from looking at our politics. From abortion to the minimum wage to war, the Right wins the important arguments.

How do they do it? Verbal abuse. Right-wing bullies name-call, they hector, they doxx, they blacklist...Read more

Back in the antediluvian era of American politics, perpetrating dirty tricks was considered proof of bad character and potentially disqualifying for public office, depending on circumstances.

But as with so many other aspects of public life, the rise of former President Donald Trump heralded a steep decline in political ethics and the way ...Read more

My son brought home a bookmark from school promoting the school's spring book fair -- and it doubled as a coupon to a fast-food restaurant. This isn't the first "free kid's meal" coupon my son has gotten. It's a pretty common thing, and after the book I just read, it annoys me.

"Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn't Food" ...Read more