Subterms
As protests unfold night after night in city streets across the United States, President Donald Trump, never previously accused of being camera shy, was nowhere to be seen. The New York Times reports on his newfound taste for discretion: “The president spent Sunday out of sight, berating opponents on Twitter, even as some of his […] More
In a recent press briefing, US President Donald Trump was asked why he hadn’t ordered the federal government to do more to respond to the pleas of state governors for more help in fighting the coronavirus pandemic now ravaging some of their states and exhausting their limited resources. His reply was stunning. The federal government, he said, […] More
In 1978-79, the United Kingdom experienced the winter of discontent. Trade unions around the country went on strike. On January 22, 1979, the UK experienced the largest strike action since the General Strike of 1926. Even gravediggers and waste collectors joined in, leaving corpses and rubbish piling up. A bitterly cold winter with blizzards and heavy […] More
I have just finished a couple of weeks on the road in Texas, during which time the coronavirus pandemic blew up across the American landscape. The best sign that something serious was happening while I was on the road was the number of guys in truck stop and convenience store restrooms washing their hands after taking […] More
The hardest part of publishing articles in the news is drafting the story’s headline. Headlines serve two essential purposes: to give a general idea of the subject that the article exposes and to trigger the reader’s curiosity or interest. Because the headline must be pithy, the second objective includes a serious risk of misrepresentation. A […] More
The year 2019 has ended. Traditions abound to celebrate the coming of a new year, and this time around a new decade. There seems to be some notion that celebrating the coming year will wash away all of the detritus of the year just ended and provide a clean slate for the new year. Nothing could be further […] More
