This post first appeared a decade ago, in March 2012. Since then – from my perspective – things have only gotten worse. Forty years ago, I habitually read The New York Times from cover to cover. I trusted the writers who were committed to writing the truth and to attributing their facts to sources. Today, …
Tag Archives: movies
Clarence Oddbody on Each Man’s Life
Originally posted 12/20/2011… As Tom Shadyac professes in his film “I AM:” We are all connected. Each person on this planet is connected to every other man, woman and child, and it goes deeper still … all of creation is connected. Our connectivity mandates that we make good choices because even the least of our …
It’s a Wonderful Life
We first wrote and posted this six years on December 21, 2012. Last night, December 14, 2018, Mrs. tVM and I watched “It’s a Wonderful Life” just as we’ve done every Christmas season for as long as I can remember. It always moves me in ways I can’t say much better than I did – with …
Jimmy Stewart, Beau and Heaven
Last Sunday, my friend Father Charlie gave a ‘remarkable’ homily about a ‘remarkable fellow.’ His sermon was grounded in the 1927 silent film “7th Heaven.” I did my research and found “7th Heaven” on YouTube. I learned that there is a 1937 remake with Jimmy Stewart. Both versions are available on YouTube. Last night, Mrs. …
The Christmas Story
It is my Christmas ritual to share this piece every year. Maybe you can read it to a child… maybe you will just read it to yourself. I hope you read it, enjoy it and find value in it … Most people — certainly those younger than 60 — may only know “Ben-Hur” as a …
Thanksgiving
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day, a day which was first declared a federal holiday in 1863 in the midst of the War Between the States by President Abraham Lincoln. It pains me to think that 150 years later, it is more often referred to as the day before black Friday. The year has been a challenging …
Martin Sheen: A Hero who Broke Through
Yesterday morning as I waited in the foyer of an assisted living facility, I glanced at a basket filled with old magazines. The magazine on top of the pile was the AARP magazine. I am not an “AARP guy,” but the cover picture was a picture of a smiling Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez, better known …
The Dog
Of all the animals on Earth, I have learned most from the dog. Although my boyhood home was next door to a veterinarian, Doc Dapson in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, I never owned a dog until 1975 when we lived on a farm in Upstate New York. In his epic poetry, Homer tells us of Odysseus’s dog …