I just finished 450 horrible pages of debauchery and self-destructive and wanton idiocy of an American idol, who hated himself. I have been a Yankee fan since 1951, my first game, and was a Mantle fan like everyone else. I learned about his true character when I was a freshman in college from a classmate who lived next to him in Dallas and often baby sat for the Commerce Comet.   more »

Upon FDR’s return to the District from his Thanksgiving holiday at his Warm Springs retreat, known as “The Little White House,” he was to be the featured guest at the Gridiron Dinner, which was hosted by the press corps which covered the White House and all the action that abounded within the political scope of the Congress.   more »

The economy is alive and well just west of the Delaware River. All one has to do is to head west from the George Washington Bridge to Route 80 and keep on driving until one reaches the Delaware Water Gap. Once over the bridge, Jersey becomes Pennsylvania and one enters the edge of Middle America. There are a string of towns along the Delaware River named Bushkill, Stroudsburg, Marshall’s Creek, and Tannersville. These communities straddle roads like 209 and 611 and the backups at the intersections make traffic jams anywhere in the Big Apple passé.   more »

Milt Hoffman, the Dean of Westchester County’s journalists, was a guest on The Advocates this week. He recently lost his beloved wife Judy of over 50 years. We met the Hoffmans many years ago at a Jai-alai Fronton in Connecticut and on vacation in Florida. They were a great partnership, and Milt, who covered seven Democratic and Republican National Conventions, knew more about local government and how it worked, then anyone I, or any one else, has ever known.   more »

Arizona continues to enchant us and our 6th trip there since 2000 had not been a disappointment. Even though there have been talks of boycotts, problems of illegal immigration and the fact that the State has a governor named Jan Brewer who has a problem understanding the US Constitution along with two Senators; John McCain and Jon Kyl who are troglodytes at best, the state remains a great place to visit.   more »

The next morning we were up very early as usual. We never really adapted to Arizona’s three hour difference. Even though the state is in Mountain Time, they do not observe daylight savings time in the state, and therefore they are on the same time as California.   more »

Our guest is Ms. Allegra Dengler, conservationist, activist and expert on voting machines.   more »

Let us not forget what the Republicans and their friends got us into these past number of years. We were attacked on 9/11. The country backed the President, and after years of an unfunded war, we are still practically no where in Afghanistan and the Democratic Congress and President Obama was left with a Hobson’s Choice of whether to stay or get out.   more »

Our guest is Mr. Michael A. Cohen, author and commentator about American politics and issues and a Senior Fellow of the American Security Project. Our subject will be Politics in NY and Washington, the influence of the Tea Party on the GOP and what we can expect on Election Day.   more »

One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio. My guest is Bill Samuels, entrepreneur, political activist and the founder of the New Roosevelt Initiative.   more »

My guest is Columbia University Professor Mark C. Taylor, author of Crisis on Campus,” which offers a bold plan for reforming our higher educational system before its economic and structural bubble implodes.   more »

Last night at the Ethical Culture Society, which is located at 2 West 64th Street, right next to Central Park, the New York Historical Society hosted Professor Niall Ferguson.   more »

In Yesterday’s edition of the Journal News, Republican State Chairperson Edward Cox, the son in law of President Richard Nixon, and the wealthy scion of four American founding families, commented that the GOP nominee for governor, Mr. Carl Paladino “will recover and get back to his plans to cut spending and taxes.”   more »

This past weekend we stayed at the Ponds of Fox Hollow Resort, walked the though the City of Lenox's Apple-Squeeze Street Fair and played tennis at Cranwell.   more »

In today’s NY Times there is an article on the size of the new Steinbrenner plaque that now dominates the Yankees’ Monument Memorial Park in centerfield. One can read the article by opening the below attachment:   more »

It is Saturday morning here on Yom Kippur. It is a bit gray and about 61 degrees. It promises to be nice and hit about 75 and tomorrow is also supposed to be quite mild and go to 85. My indoor tennis game started but I am not scheduled tomorrow. After many years my separate, but parallel game that was played in MV has ended. The facility is being torn down and re-structured and some of the players have aged and have been injured out of play.   more »

Early Friday afternoon I met Linda at the Metro North Railroad Station in White Plains, NY. The car was packed, the Mapquest directions were printed and the GPS was activated. We headed directly to the Cross Westchester Expressway and the Hutchison River Parkway North. Even though it was early in the day, the trip north up the Merritt to New Haven, Hartford and the Massachusetts Turnpike was fraught with slowdowns, delays and heavy traffic.   more »

It was not as sunny as forecasted, but no immediate precipitation was said to be on the horizon. Linda had been the grateful recipient of tickets offered from WB Mason, which supplies her office. On Thursday, she asked me if I had any interest in going to see the Yankees on Saturday, and I, of course, agreed. Our usual tennis games in Armonk are always scheduled early and by 10:40 am we were finished and we were off to Tarrytown for quick showers.   more »

After a day of sun, tennis and a swim, we headed back to Tarrytown for showers, a rest and a change of clothes. By five-thirty pm we picked up the Habers and the Schoens in Scarsdale and headed for Hutchinson River Parkway and made our way east and south to the Bronx River Parkway and the Bruckner Expressway which leads to the FDR Drive.   more »

The “Dog Days” of August were in full fury yesterday in the Bronx, as another chapter of the annual renewal of the century old rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox again took place at the Yankee Stadium. Times have changed, but the rivalry that started in 1903 when the Yankees were know as the Highlanders and the Red Sox were known as the Americans, still has emotional fervor.   more »

This past Friday, we left right on schedule for the Berkshires with our Lincoln Town Car. The Jaguar was in the car hospital at EurroMecchanica, and it was just as well. We would need a lot of room for all our gear, food and, once we got to the Berkshires, our children and our daughters’ good friend. It was a smooth uneventful drive up the 100 miles to the end of the Taconic Parkway and into Massachusetts.   more »

Last night on 5th Avenue in Pelham, NY, at the town’s gazebo, on their village green, a large enthusiastic crowd of all ages, were entertained by the incomparable Phil Kiame and his Philip James Band.   more »

This Saturday we spent the afternoon with Marc Soucy and Nancy Jenkinson from Boston. They were down in Westchester on a serendipitous trip to see some of the sights. Linda had suggested Kykuit,   more »

It was a hot sunny day this past Wednesday. Every Wednesday is a bit special because I broadcast my show, The Advocates from the WVOX studios in New Rochelle. On this day, I had, as my guest, Amy Bach, the award-winning author of Ordinary Injustice, a powerful expose of the fouled up nature of our legal-jurisprudence system. She had been on my show seven months ago, but it was the right time to re-visit with her and her book.   more »

Henry Littlefield died 10 years ago, and in a sense it was just like yesterday. Today I was looking over author John Irving’s memoir “Trying to Save Piggy Sneed,” to look at the description of Henry on page 118.    more »

As a long-time Celtic fan, whose allegiance goes back to before the Bill Russell era, I have not a wit of interest in the past, present or future of the NY Knicks. I didn’t like them since they were coached by Joe Lapchick, no less Fuzzy Levane.   more »

Oliver Wendell Holmes said, and I paraphrase, “paying taxes is the price of civilization.” Our high tax levels are directly connected to the cost of living in this region and the cost of labor which performs the services.   more »

James Bradley, with his latest book, The Imperial Cruise, has woven an eye-opening, unforgettable tale of deceit, racism, bravado, warmongering and misplaced jingoism at the feet of one of our most revered presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. With his earlier book, Flag of Our Fathers, he has established book ends to our Pacific foreign policy from the 1880’s through the end of World War II.   more »

The Roosevelt Summer Book Reading Festival has again been blessed with great weather. It therefore was an incredibly pleasant day on the Hudson River. On days like this one could easily imagine why Franklin Roosevelt loved his home so much.   more »

I watched the story on Gaza, broadcasted on June 8, 2010, on the Evening News, and I found it incredibly one-sided, inaccurate, and patently ridiculous. You might as well have gone into an enemy city during WWII and discussed the lack of proportionality of the Allied bombing and the collateral destruction of their health care services.   more »

American is big wonderful place, which has been blessed over the years with an over abundance of natural resources, wildlife, fresh water, wonderful harbors and a dynamic population of immigrants who sought out the New World to express their own ideas, enjoy freedom, and work hard. Over its history, like most of the rest of the world, it has faced many challenges. Most Americans historically have been optimists. But can optimism alone alter dynamics that once in motion must run their course?   more »

In November of 2009, Pepe’s Pizzeria, founded by Frank Pepe, on Wooster Street in New Haven, CT, and now run by his descendents moved into a location at 1555 Central Avenue, which was formerly the home of the now departed and legendary Ricky’s Clam House.   more »