We had an open porch facing the yard at our childhood home. After the war, the G.I. vets looking for work closed it off and installed knotty pine panels from which we hung pictures and bas-relief decorations. We called the narrow chamber …
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Mike Fink
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5/22/15
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I like unpopular movies. “Woman in Gold” kept me deeply interested despite, or because of, its negative reviews. Helen Mirren did a superb job of portraying inner turmoil. The camera gave the viewer plenty to think about, not just …
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Mike Fink
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5/7/15
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It’s from Shakespeare, but I drag it out to describe my dilemma in the voting booth. A plague on both your houses! Along with a feh! The Republicans are right as rain when it comes to issues about Israel. Strangely, the right gets …
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Mike Fink
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4/23/15
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We hired a cab. It got a flat tire on the road from Puerto Plata to Sosua. We were heading for the downtown strip, between a hotel and a bank, where, hidden by a fence and a wall, there was a Jewish historical museum. And, right next door, a …
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Mike Fink
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3/26/15
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I met Alexandra Broches at a marina cafe in South Kingstown. She has served as director of the Hera Gallery in Wakefield, where she has also shown her prints, photographs and paintings. She has taught at both the University of Rhode …
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Mike Fink
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2/26/15
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She was a delicate beauty, a refined refugee from the rise of Nazism who took flight to stardom in the dreamland over the rainbow: Hollywood, USA. Luise Rainer played poignant variations on the theme of her own early life: the loss of, and …
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Mike Fink
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1/30/15
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1938 hurricane: I was in kindergarten. Front window broke, lamp fell on floor. Through grammar school, Depression ended, war began. Sixth grade: FDR died, V-E Day. Junior high: GI uncles and cousins came home. War …
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Mike Fink
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1/16/15
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“It was in the bleak December and each separate dying ember cast its spell” … Edgar Allan Poe described the 12th month in such phrases. His elaborate verse has been recognized in France especially. He was translated by none other than the …
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Mike Fink
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12/18/14
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I inherited the syllabus and the bibliography for my elective course on the Bible. The Oxford Study Bible combines the “Old” and the New Testaments, and I have added Elie Wiesel’s “Five Biblical Portraits” as recommended reading. As you …
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Mike Fink
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11/21/14
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Well, I congratulated the Warwick Showcase for bringing us both “Magic in the Moonlight” and also “Calvary,” two movies that did not attract big crowds but offered stories with content as well as style. I have to add my best wishes to …
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Mike Fink
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10/23/14
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