Over the course of many years, Esquire magazine ran recurring cover photos of the late former President Richard M. Nixon with the headlined question, "why is this man smiling?" The New York Mets baseball team has the distinction of having put the first mascot ever in major league history on...

"... Don't you want somebody to love, don't you need somebody to love, wouldn't you love somebody to love, you better find somebody to love.."

Back in 1967, those lyrics were belted out by Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane and hit the number-five spot on the Billboard Hot 100 becoming...

Ed Koch was a member of The Greatest Generation and not just by accident of birth. Sergeant Koch fought his way on foot across Europe in 1944 and '45, winning two battle stars for his service. His tenacity and courage would make him a star as a politician later in...

Some Republicans don't know a victory when they see one. All you hear out of presidential hopeful Marco Rubio and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is doom and gloom but this is a case of not seeing the forest for the trees.

Tuesday the House passed the Senate's bill avoiding...

In France most of the cows are white. I know this because I was just there two weeks ago, rambling around the countryside. Their horses look different than ours, too. So do their houses, their toilets, their trains, their cars and even their sandwiches.

On their highways they...

By September 12th 2005 Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from Gaza. By that date every last Israeli settler, farm, building, synagogue and even cemetery plot was uprooted, sometimes forcibly and brought back to within the pre-1967 Israeli borders. Even all military and security installations were dismantled and everything handed over...

About 56,870,551 people think Mitt Romney is a nice guy. And therein was the problem for the GOP standard-bearer.

After the first of three presidential debates Romney saw his momentum and poll numbers surge. He gave a decisive prosecutorial performance against a nodding-off President Obama while concurrently coming off as...

In Genesis, Chapter 7, Verse 11 it says, "on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened." In religious terms, I'm probably what you might call a believer, but nevertheless until this week I always had some doubts in...

On October 6, 1967, NBC aired an especially compelling episode of Star Trek called "Mirror, Mirror." While beaming up from the planet Halkan, the Enterprise's landing party consisting of Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott and Lt. Uhura got caught in an ion storm which scrambled the transporter beam so...

It was a draw. Both fighters were left standing on their feet at the close of the 15th round and neither fighter succeeded to making the other bleed or fall to the canvas. I'm talking about last night's vice presidential debate between Veep Joe Biden and GOP nominee Paul Ryan.

In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue. That's how the history lesson of Christopher Columbus was taught to us kids back in the black and white '60s. Old Chris was a pretty big deal back in the day. After all, this is the man who discovered America, or the Western...

In the 1970s the two colossi of pugilism, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier had three epic fights for the undisputed heavyweight crown. Their fighting styles and approaches could not have been more different from one another, ditto their lifestyles, politics and personalities. The contests, one of which was called "The...

I admit it. I love going topless. I'm not referring to nude or topless beaches or nudist colonies. I'm talking about the sun in my face and the wind in my hair when my hardtop convertible is the fully retracted position.

Living in New York we Empire State dwellers only...

For Jewish people, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish Near Year of 5773 arrives this evening (Sept. 16). Unlike the Chinese New Year, Jews don't set-off tumultuous parades replete with snaking dragons and firecrackers in the streets -- in fact, in many Jewish communities, the streets are deserted. Unlike the secular New...

In many respects there is a fundamental contradiction in logic that pervades a huge chunk of the Republican Party. At their convention there was no end of talk about freedom of this and freedom of that along with freedom from this and that. Yet there is one aspect of the...

A genuine piece of America passed away on Saturday. The man who really, truly boldly went where no man had gone before -- Neil Armstrong, the first human being ever to leave the confines of Earth and set foot on any extraterrestrial body (that being the moon) was gathered up...

For the first time in 10 years -- and that would be back in 2002 -- the Mets were swept in all six games of a six game home stand. Worse still, the Mets have dropped 12 of their last 13 games. They have a .190 batting average with runners...

Thanks to Chief Justice John Roberts, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the law of the land. Interestingly, like the 18th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting alcohol and 1919's Volstead Act enforcing it, what is sometimes derisively called Obamacare may end up once again proving the law of unintended consequences....

Hi. My name is Howard and I'm a Mets fan. Like with any 12-step redemptive program for various uncontrollable abuses and addictions, it seems necessary to preface any article about Met fandom with a public acknowledgement of my weakness, much as someone might do in a support group like AA.

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...