Peter Funt is a writer and speaker. His book, “Cautiously Optimistic,” is available at Amazon.com and CandidCamera.com. Contact him at Peter@CandidCamera.com.
In its season opener “Saturday Night Live” did a fine job of skewering political figures who dominated headlines during the show’s summer hiatus. The Trump stuff was funny, but even with new Ukrainian fodder it was routine. The Democratic parodies, however, were fresh and so spot-on that they exposed the frustrating frailties of the 2020 field.
Lawmakers in California have littered their desks with measures designed to eliminate plastic products, such as bags and even straws. But in failing to provide an adequate system for recycling these items - along with glass, metal and paper — they have created an environmental mess and a socioeconomic dilemma.
Here are my five favorite things about this sentence: (1) It grabs your attention, (2) It keeps you guessing, (3) It’s not overly wordy, (4) It’s something you might forward to friends, (5) It’s part of the list-making trend that just keeps growing.
Back when I was a rookie editor in ABC’s Manhattan newsroom we used to place bets - actual cash wagers - on how the New York Times would design the next day’s front page.
Thoughts and prayers, we are often reminded, only go so far. And politicians’ attention spans are alarmingly short.
Here’s the weather summary, as printed the other day on the front page of the San Francisco Chronicle: “Hot and sunny. Highs from 65 to 105.”
There was a clear message in Robert Mueller’s testimony last week before two House committees, but it wasn’t just about the danger Russia poses to our elections. It was the risk that aging presents for our public servants.
His portfolio of editorial cartoons in hand, Burris Jenkins Jr. arrived for a job interview at The New York American one day in 1931 and mistakenly got off the elevator at the wrong floor. He found himself in the sports department of the rival Evening Journal, where he was hired on the spot as a sports cartoonist.
Silly me. I thought one advantage of having a 76-year-old Democrat running for president is that his campaign would be refreshingly old school: a few lawn signs, a bus trip across Iowa and an occasional postcard to supporters through the U.S. Mail.
Is the bulging field of Democrats seeking the 2020 presidential nomination a sign of strength? Or is it a troubling indication that wresting the presidency from Donald Trump won’t be as easy as it ought to be.
