Keeping Up With The News

I’m such a Luddite.

Sitting in the waiting area to see my ophthalmologist this afternoon alongside five other patients, I felt like a technology Neanderthal. As I read Bloomberg Businessweek, three others scrolled through their smart phones. While I read about KidZania, a franchised indoor theme park concept where children can pretend to be nurses, dentists, window cleaners, models and other professions, one of the other patients announced he just read on his iPhone Anthony Weiner admitted he was the congressional member behind the grey underwear.

That was all he could tell us. The eye drops placed in his eyes minutes before had taken effect and blurred his vision. Oh well, I was left to my imagination, much like Weiner left his future integrity and career.

Weiner, it has been said, was supposed to be tech-savvy. Perhaps it's not such a bad thing that I'm a Luddite when it comes to technology...


We’re Number 1: With Eric Massa, Chris Lee and now Weiner, New York has the unenviable position, I believe, of being the leading state of elected congressional perverts. Or at least exposed elected congressional perverts.

For good measure, let’s not forget our former governor, Eliot Spitzer, though he was trumped by California’s former governator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. At least Spitzer didn’t father a love child.

Is there something in the water here? I always thought New York had the best water in the country. Perhaps it really does, but not for the reason I was led to believe.

The only silver lining in Weinergate, according to Gilda, is that he didn’t run on a family values platform.



Intern Time: It’s June. College is out. Which means it’s summer intern time.

My sister’s daughter, Lauren, celebrates her 22nd birthday today. She graduates from University of California-Davis on Saturday, then returns to Los Angeles where she will work as a paid summer intern for an Internet fashion retailer.

Did you get that? A “paid” summer intern. If you’ve been reading or hearing stories recently about interns, you’ve probably noticed many, too many, are given the “privilege” of working for free. Does the term “indentured servitude” mean anything to you? Yes, I know all the benefits an intern can reap from being part of the business world (even if some companies restrict an intern’s obligations to filing and getting coffee).

But seriously, folks, we need to end this modern version of slavery and pay interns. For many years the company I worked for hired summer interns. We paid them $350 a week. They were vital members of our staffs, writing and editing stories, attending press conferences, and learning about the business of journalism.

They came from all parts of the country. One co-ed from the South, Louisiana if memory serves me well, was visited by her mother during the summer. This was during the early 1990s when New York’s reputation as a dangerous city was well-deserved. Still, we were not prepared when her mother showed up and announced she had a pistol in her pocketbook, just in case.


Point of Personal Pride: For those who haven’t heard, our daughter Ellie got engaged last Thursday. Donny’s a wonderful guy. Gilda and I are thrilled for them.