Carla Seaquist

"You were lonely? But, I was lonely too!"

No mere words, this was an "ultra-violet moment" -- a moment when the world halts on its axis, lights bump up to surgical brightness, masks are dropped, words fulfill their precise meaning, and Truth is illuminated -- finally -- in our case,...

When I first encountered the poetry of Wislawa Szymborska -- the Nobel laureate from Poland who died recently at age 88 -- it was love at first read. It was the early '80s; I was browsing in a bookstore when my eye luckily fell on these...

As is often the case, it takes a tragedy to force an issue.

With the massacre of 17 Afghans in a Kandahar village, including nine children, a crime allegedly committed by an American soldier on his fourth tour, the burden of multiple combat tours and its damage to...

It's been said that to analyze humor is to take the fun out of it. But sometimes analysis is needed, funny or not. This train of thought was sparked by a panel, "Comedy as Commentary," presented recently by a Seattle theater.

To start, the critic on the panel...

Why can't Art instruct? In addition to providing entertainment, consolation, beauty, and a reflection of our humanity by holding "the mirror up to nature," why can't Art also teach us a thing or two?

In his review of J.T. Rogers' play about Afghanistan, Blood and...

Quo vadis, Occupy? With the encampments folding or forcibly shut down -- for reasons of public health or winter weather -- and with eulogies already appearing, what next for the earthquake known as Occupy Wall Street?

Rather than go dark 'til spring, inventive activists are pressing on...

If only Jon Corzine had read Moby-Dick.....

Like Captain Ahab, Corzine sacrificed his ship, MF Global, on an all-or-nothing bet. Ahab searched the globe in his "monomaniac" drive to revenge himself on the Great White Whale who'd "dismasted" him of a leg. Corzine, in chasing Goldman Sachs where he'd...

Lost in the histories of World War II is an extraordinary tale: that of Allied airmen, shot down over Europe, who were captured and imprisoned in the Nazi labor camp, Buchenwald.

While most captured airmen -- pilots, navigators, radiomen -- were held in prisoner-of-war (POW) camps and treated according...

Bipartisan agreement -- at last.

My mother and I are close in many things, but not in politics. Mom is the staunch Republican, while I'm the staunch Democrat.

Mom states repeatedly her fealty to the Republican tenets of small government and fiscal responsibility,...

Oh, please! Why must The New York Times devote not one, not two, but three bright spotlights to Nicholson Baker's latest novel, "House of Holes," a work that comes with the pathetic, attention-getting subtitle, "A Book of Raunch"?

See the magazine article, gleefully titled "The Mad Scientist of...

It's an offer way too good to refuse.

During the recent wretched sausage-making on Capitol Hill to raise the debt limit, which rotten product -- all cuts and no revenue, not even loophole-closing -- was rammed through by the Republicans, Congressman Eric Cantor (R.-VA) was contacted by various of his...

Once again we do the rigid Kabuki dance, leading once again to political stalemate -- this time over raising the federal debt ceiling. Even with the unthinkable looming -- defaulting on America's "full faith and credit" for the first time in our 235-year history -- our political system, rather than...

In the still-unfolding, still-exploding scandal of the sexual assault that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, International Monetary Fund chief and prospective French presidential candidate, allegedly perpetrated on a chambermaid in a $3000-a-night room in a New York hotel, the one cheering note is this:

The maid's story was not only believed, but...

In these days since President Barack Obama announced that a SEAL team killed Osama bin Laden, the world's most wanted terrorist, notice how quickly Republicans -- in particular, officials of the George W. Bush administration -- have moved to assert that the Bush-Cheney torture program was the key to success.

Falling, falling, so much is falling...

In an article headlined "For star director of 'Spider-Man,' a precipitous fall," about the firing of director Julie Taymor from the Broadway production, The New York Times overstates the case -- vastly -- when it characterizes Ms. Taymor's fall from artistic genius...

Dignity.

This is the bedrock theme, the master chord echoing in the revolutions unfolding in Egypt and Tunisia in these historic weeks, as stated eloquently and pridefully -- and with earthquake force -- by their people out in the streets.

While other revolutions of late might be color-coded (Ukraine's...

As rude awakenings go, this one was a bucket of cold water, with ice.

In recent international testing of 15-year-olds in 65 countries, the U.S. failed to place anywhere near the top 10, not even close. In science, America ranked 23rd; in reading, 17th; and in math, an...

The reviews were right: See Inside Job, the documentary about the Wall Street-driven financial meltdown of 2008, through which we're still suffering two years later -- and you will come out steaming.

In a two-hour cavalcade of cause and effect, the film charts the insane risk-taking, via voodoo...

Feeling whiplashed by the midterm election? No wonder: We've literally been through the wringer -- 360 degrees of change in two very short years.

In 2008 Democrats voted, by wide margin, for the "change" candidate, Barack Obama. Truth be told, Mr. Obama was none too specific about what kind of...

By pretty universal agreement, this midterm election has been the worst, the stupidest in memory. "I am not a witch," the campaign ad starring Delaware's tea-partying Christine O'Donnell, states it for jaw-dropping inanity.

Rather than itemize the inanities once again---we have the media for that---let's stay with the phenomenon itself....