Who’s got that Kneeling Feeling? The heading rhymes with one of the most poignantly sad popular song “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” by the Righteous Brothers (Sorry, if you were not born when this song hit the scene; but you should check it out sometime – it is one of the greatest ballads ever over…
When a bunch of 20-year-olds live next to one another in close quarters, mischief will invariably appear on the scene. In the famous Great Battle of the Dorm, tear gas became the predominant weapon. For us chemistry students, making this kind of odious substance was a breeze. There are many chemical compounds that will…
I read this book when it first appeared on the market in 2002 and wrote the critique below soon after. Fifteen years later and wiser (I hope), I am absolutely flabbergasted to find out that this shallow, unrealistic, unscientific collection of pop psychology / sociology is still ranked #140 of all two million for…
When people, who are old enough to remember, are asked to name the one individual who contributed the most to the downfall of communism, many will answer “Ronald Reagan”. While President Reagan certainly deserves much credit, I would like to submit four other candidates for the top spot: John, Paul George and Ringo. In the…
Fifty-Seven years ago today is a day that lives in infamy in the history of mankind. On that day, East Germany erected the Berlin Wall, essentially incarcerating a whole nation within its own borders. Given my personal history, it is a poignant coincidence that on that very day my family was denied access to Berlin…
A recently discovered photograph of the Microsoft Founders proves that former KGB Agent Jack Barsky was one of the company co-founders. Apparently, out of embarrassment, Gates and Company managed to remove the Barsky face from the iconic photograph. All we can do now is issue a strong warning: MS Word is set to explode on…
Russia is not your friend Russia was never your friend You can’t make Russia to become your friend Go back to Commandment #1 Leave your ego at home – one-on-one, the Russian guy is probably stronger Any important Russian official, government or otherwise, should be assumed to either be intelligence or have a connection to…
An unlikely encounter – or perhaps not any more?! For all you non policy wonks – the good looking fellow in this picture is one of the most accomplished political operators in recent history, David Axelrod. Last week Thursday evening, he left the studio, and I sort of took his place on CNN. That night…
My Colleagues in the Messenger Office The two and a half years I spent doing messenger work turned the German college professor into a Manhattan street urchin. Occasionally, I would ask myself: “So where is the life of glamor the Russian English professor had hinted at during my interview in Moscow?” Perhaps it…
7AM, the alarm rings. One look out the window and I really do not want to get up. There is a driving rain outside and the temperature is hovering around 40 degrees. ‘This will be a tough day’ I think ‘but I got to go – if I don’t show up in bad weather,…
