News

Mad Men Smokes Competition, Sweeps Emmys

Mad Men and 30 Rock swept last night's Emmys --- both in terms of numbers of nominations and numbers of wins.  They were chosen best in show for their categories (Best Drama, Best Comedy) and their writers ---Matthew Weiner and Tina Fey--- retired their respective...

Books Report

I only need a few fingers to count the mysteries and/or thrillers that have, for me, set an exciting and convincing pace from the very first pages that doesn't let up until an ending which ---perhaps most difficult of all to achieve in this genre---doesn't let down....

Portrait Of A Nixon Speechwriter

Aram Bakshian, Jr. was a rhetorical strategist and essential member of President Nixon’s speechwriting team. He worked his way up through the ranks in the sixties and early seventies as a speechwriter for Bob Dole (then chair of the RNC) and a conservative commentary...

Library Diplomacy

At the Nixon Library on Tuesday, the United States and China arrived at major commercial agreements at the 19th annual JCCT (US-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade) after extensive talks led by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez along with Trade...

George Putnam, 1914-2008

They say that the deaths of prominent people come in threes, and remarkably, three of the notable Americans whose deaths were announced this weekend were California residents. These were the novelist David Foster Wallace, whose premature and tragic passing I note...