June 1, 2020 At this later time in my life, I have a few favored ways to spend leisure time.  One of them is sitting in my garden, or on my porch, looking at it.  Sometimes,  I do nothing but …

May 16, 2020 To the Editors of the New York Times Dear Sir/Madam: I am writing in response to two articles in your paper by different writers, both dated May 12. Both discuss/report on the impacts of Covid 19 on …

Sunday, March 22, 2020 How will the Manhattan housing market be affected by the Covid 19 pandemic?  What are the short and the longer-term effects?  This is an attempt to address these questions.  Let us begin with the belief that …

Judaism is a fixed part of my life, although I’ve never emphasized it. I have used it to focus on other things—that is until the shootings at the synagogue in Pittsburgh which had an unexpected and negative impact. As a …

I’ve taken a side trip to visit some younger friends in Amsterdam.  I know them from the year they spent in New York—Brune, the daughter of friends in Paris, and her boyfriend Frederic, working respectively in solar-panel marketing and on-line …

It is impossible to convey my love for France without writing about the Vink sisters.  Both are now married, with husbands, children and grandchildren, but of course that was not how they were when I met them. Therese was a …

Montpellier, July 22, 2018   From Arcachon, I took the train into Bordeaux. After the importance and elegance of Paris, and the evident, nearly uniform affluence of Arcachon and Pyla, I was initially taken aback.   Of course, Bordeaux is much …