“Nowadays, secrets are often easily exposed”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, April 14 2013 Who’s wearing the wire in your office? If not you, it could be anyone. Secret recordings are suddenly everywhere. I’m just back from Albany, where the whole capital city is playing a new guessing game: How many politicians will get indicted from the tapes…
Details“Two thumbs up for unequivocal Roger Ebert”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, April 7 2013 Thumbs up. Thumbs down. Doesn’t that cover everything? Of course, it doesn’t. Even Roger Ebert knew that. On TV, the famously unequivocal movie critic delivered his reviews with take-a-stand adamance. But he lived out the final years of his life on a…
Details“When will we tire of make-believe wars?”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, March 31 2013 So how did the big war on Easter turn out? Easter baskets, Easter services, premium-priced Easter brunches at hundreds of Long Island restaurants: Reports from the front say Easter is alive and kicking around here. Some of my cable TV friends were sounding…
Details“Suffolk is serious about its bans”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, March 24, 2013 What hasn’t Suffolk County banned or restricted yet? Wouldn’t that be a much shorter list? The roster of the officially verboten is getting awfully lengthy. Drop-side baby cribs. Toxic detergents. Steel-jaw leg traps for small animals. Infant bottles containing BPA. Electronic cigarettes in…
Details“Perceived labels that no longer fit reality”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, March 17, 2013 It’s all in the labeling sometimes. Is St. Patrick’s Day a “drunkfest” or a “sober family holiday”? As always, that depends on who’s being asked. Police across Long Island certainly have a view. They’ve set up breathalyzer checkpoints at many of…
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“Reports of economic growth don’t feel real”, Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, March 10, 2013 Feeling rich yet? The Dow hit another all-time high on Friday. The whole stock market has been soaring like an eagle out of Lance Armstrong’s medicine chest. The Labor Department’s latest jobs report was “brisk” (Wall Street Journal), “great news” (Washington…
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Jedi mind trick, Vulcan mind meld: An exasperated Barack Obama was obviously smushing his “Star Wars” and his “Star Trek” together when he complained that no “Jedi mind meld” could persuade congressional Republicans to end the budget sequester. Still, the president’s point was clear enough. Washington may be an otherworldly place these days, but that…
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And the winner is . . . hmmm. Maybe there isn’t a winner this time. New York is celebrating its third straight snow-watch weekend. Hollywood is celebrating itself. And Washington has nothing to celebrate at all. How much fun is that? If you went by the calendar, this should be a weekend of great excitement.…
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I knew nothing, and so did you. I knew popes don’t quit. I knew meteors stay in the sky. I knew cruise ships are so gargantuan and stable, nothing can possibly go wrong. There was evidence, solid evidence, for all of this. No pope had said “I’m outta here” since the 1400s. Meteors fly around…
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If Sandy was a superstorm and Nemo was a double-whammy, what diabolical plans do God and nature have for Long Island next? If these weather calamities keep slamming us this way, what will it take to cause a stir next year? Locusts? There was once a time that storms of the century came once a…
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