'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
Neil Armstrong would always be taking that first step onto the moon, and Dick Clark was forever "the world's oldest teenager." Some of the notables who died in 2012 created images in our minds that remained unchanged over decades.
Was Salvador Dali _ who proclaimed himself a genius and "divine" _ one of the world's greatest artists or one of the world's biggest showoffs?
They occupy banks, stage sit-ins at government buildings and roar their rage at their own government and at German Chancellor Angela Merkel. They also use canes and crutches to get to these so-called "actions" — because their average age is 70.
Of the three great Spanish artists of the 20th century — Picasso, Salvador Dali and Joan Miro — the first is a recurring subject of National Gallery of Art exhibitions, with seven shows in the past three decades. But while Dali awaits his turn, beginning Sunday Miro gets some overdue attention from the National Gallery in "Joan Miro: The Ladder of Escape," a major new exhibition of well over a hundred works spanning his long, productive life.
Some old dead white man once said: "All historical analogies are odious." He meant they stink because the time, place and dramatis personae of any historical event are so particularistic. Drawing similarities with another event defies logic.
Thousands of cars flying white ribbons or white balloons circled central Moscow on Sunday in a show of protest against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
The Spanish judge who became an international human rights hero went on trial Tuesday for daring to probe right-wing atrocities surrounding the Spanish Civil War that may be linked to the deaths or disappearances of more than 100,000 civilians.
As this vivid account of the key role the Portuguese capital played during World War II tells us, when the traditional European "City of Light" - Paris - lay extinguished under the dark cloud of Nazi occupation, Lisbon's lights burned bright. When, one after another, most of Europe's lamps went out, as they had a generation earlier in another world war, to be replaced by somber blackout, Lisbon's bright street lighting and neon signs struck visitors as surreal.
A Spanish filmmaker critical of the military dictatorship under Gen. Francisco Franco and who was credited with helping to revive the country's movie industry after its civil war died Saturday.
Has there ever been a more deceptive and subtle philosopher of history than Harry Turtledove? He entertains so engagingly and with so much light-fingered confidence that his many readers seldom stop to think about the subversive, unsettling questions about the prosecution of human affairs and the unfolding of destiny that he proposes.
"They dedicated lots of time and effort, and many even ended in prison or in exile, all of that so that we could enjoy certain rights and benefits and many of the freedoms we have today," he said.
The one-line plus big blob works of his later life (he died on Christmas Day 1983) add little to the distinction of a career marked by radical changes of scale and style.
