David Warren deserves every bit of that 45-year sentence. Baltimore is much safer with this guy gone. But, for some perspective on this case, please read what I wrote about Warren some five years ago.
For starters, stop supporting racists.
For my column in today's Baltimore Sun, I stand back from the immediate news of Donald Trump's and JD Vance's racist fear-mongering about Haitian immigrants to say, basically, if you want a great country, as a starting point, stop supporting racists. For a play I am writing, I have been looking back at our 20th … Continue reading For starters, stop supporting racists.
On stage again, with two new scenes: “Baltimore, You Have No Idea”
Hello, everyone: In case you've not had a chance to see my "one-man play with a cast of eight," or if you'd like to see it again (with two new scenes and some refinements), we are staging it again in December at the Baltimore Museum of Art. This will be the final run of "Baltimore, … Continue reading On stage again, with two new scenes: “Baltimore, You Have No Idea”
The kindness of neighbors, part II
Readers of this column might remember a Sunday piece from last summer about the man in the photo above: Dennis Slaughter, a "somewhat disabled" fellow who sells The Sun on the Edmondson Avenue median strip in the Hunting Ridge neighborhood of Southwest Baltimore. After a couple of punks robbed him at gunpoint, the people of … Continue reading The kindness of neighbors, part II
The Trump Apocalypse
Kamala Harris aced the test I set for a presidential candidate in my Baltimore Sun column: She spoke of children, families and the American future numerous times and in numerous ways during last night’s televised debate. Trump, on the other day, failed miserably: The only time he came close to referencing the welfare of children … Continue reading The Trump Apocalypse
And the Trump campaign misses an opportunity to keep him from saying crazy, vulgar things in public
News Item: In New York on Friday, Trump lashed out again at E. Jean Carroll, the woman he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed, saying the attack never happened and, besides, had he wanted to commit such an assault, "she would not have been the chosen one. She would not have been the … Continue reading And the Trump campaign misses an opportunity to keep him from saying crazy, vulgar things in public
Stuff happens: The maderisation of a fine French champagne
I know what it looks like. But I am not to blame for what happened to this 1973 Dom Perignon. It was bottled when I was a freshman in college. I came to it late in its life. I believe the provenance was Moët & Chandon at Epernay or Hautvillers to the U.S. distributor in … Continue reading Stuff happens: The maderisation of a fine French champagne
Pay Phone
My first pay phone was inside a glass-and-steel, stand-alone booth in front of a gas station in a small Massachusetts town. It’s possible for an eighth-grader to fall in love, and that’s a hard thing to admit out loud, in so many words, in the kitchen of your home, where there’s only one phone on … Continue reading Pay Phone
First fallen and fallen too soon
Pardon my reveries . . . On a Labor Day hike, I came across this singular orange leaf. The calendar gives us three more weeks of summer, but here, I thought, was a premature sign of fall -- this one orange leaf in a field by a river. It seemed to beckon me, with its … Continue reading First fallen and fallen too soon
Try to understand Trump voters? Uh, no thanks.
Nicholas Kristof, the preachy New York Times columnist, says we should not look down our noses at Trump supporters, that it’s elitist to demean them, that we should try to understand them.I used to worry that we were being too hasty to dismiss the millions of Americans who think Trump should be president, that we … Continue reading Try to understand Trump voters? Uh, no thanks.
Dan Rodricks 