Howard Barbanel

A couple on months ago, I read the following advice inscribed inside a fortune cookie: "Whatever you want to do, do it. There are only so many tomorrows." For Donna Summer, the Queen of Disco, Thursday was the last dance as she unfortunately passed from this earth far...

This week President Obama became the first president in U.S. history to come out in favor of gay marriage. Obviously, Mitt Romney is against such a thing. The voters of North Carolina and a whole lot of other states have legislated against it to the extent of passing amendments to...

It has been said that getting older is not for wimps. Among the great joys men experience as they slide into middle age is the prostate exam whereby one's physician affords men the opportunity to experience some of the physical manipulation that women get regularly at their gynecologists. Men are...

Thanks to Rick Santorum's falling on his sword about a week ago ("suspending" his campaign) the 2012 presidential election, all seven months of it, is now on.

The realpolitik issue for Santorum was money. To compete in major markets such as New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and California requires big bucks...

My first Passover seder memories are at my maternal grandparents' table up in Riverdale (which my relatives at the time insisted really wasn't The Bronx) where my late grandfather held forth for all of 15 or 20 minutes of an abridged seder by virtue of his nearly sole possession in...

Last week the Supreme Court heard three days of arguments on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act which is more popularly known as "Obamacare." The bill that was signed into law two years ago rolls over more than 2,000 pages of clauses, provisions, mandates and regulations. Former House Speaker...

It is a fascinating world when two states in the Deep South with Republican voting populations 75 and 80 percent comprised of Evangelical Christians give victories to a staunch Roman Catholic. It signals a fungibility of religiosity that makes the devout of one faith OK with the devout of another....

When Adolf Hitler came to power and prominence in Germany, the mega movie star Charlie Chaplin was not amused. You may recall that Mr. Chaplin sported a signature short moustache between his nose and upper lip. Hitler wore the same mode of facial hair. Because Hitler was, to put it...

When was the last time you believed in daydreams (let alone indulged in them), white knights on steeds or waking up at six in the morning with a homecoming queen beside you?

All that was made possible by an impish British invasion with a sometimes lead singer named Davy Jones...

The only people in New York who probably are not excited by the impending arrival of spring are New York Mets fans. Typically, as the sap starts coursing through the branches of trees with longer, warmer days and as early season flowers start poking their way through the earth in...

Sixth grade Valentine's Day in Mrs. Raffel's class at Long Beach's Lindell School back in the Paleolithic ages of 1969 was quite a big deal. Valentine's Day cards flew from desk to desk with a light speed that wasn't to materialize until decades later with the advent of email. There...

Two weeks ago more than 50 million Americans watched the New York Football Giants (what's with the "Football" part of their name anyway? There hasn't been a "Giants" baseball team in New York for more than 50 years now) defeat the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Playoff...

Watching the Republican presidential debates and the masterful performances given by Newt Gingrich, one can't help but be struck by just how bright a man he is -- because it's no small hurdle to be able to overcome a disgraceful exit from politics and public office and before recent polls...