Monthly Archives: March 2011

Let He Who Is without Sin Judge Others

By Robin Bates | Published: March 13, 2011

Spiritual Sunday Jackie Paskow, a former colleague from the Foreign Language Department, recently mentioned to me a Flannery O’Connor story that had made an impact on her. We normally visit the Paskows on Sunday evenings—Alan is my friend who has cancer—but as we are out of town for the week, I thought I’d send her, […]

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Novelists, Poker Players Must Be Relentless

By Robin Bates | Published: March 12, 2011

Sports Saturday I’m written out this week so do yourself a favor and hie thee to some of the best writing about poker that I know.  You don’t have to play the game to enjoy the writing of my novelist friend Rachel Kranz, who I’ve mentioned numerous times  Her website is called Adventures in Poker, […]

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Dance with the Enemy, Then Go Wash

By Robin Bates | Published: March 11, 2011

Film Friday The Western, Hollywood’s quintessential genre, can tell us a lot about race relations. I was reminded of this on Wednesday when I taught John Ford’s The Searchers in my American Film class. Rewatching the movie got me thinking about the Congressional hearings on “Muslim American Radicalization,” which began yesterday. I will have more […]

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Brother Fire Unleashed in Libya

By Robin Bates | Published: March 10, 2011

As I watch Muammar Qaddafi turn his air force against his own people, I am trying to imagine conditions on the ground. I asked my father for literature describing the experience, he having once undergone a bombing himself. It occurred in 1944, a couple of weeks after the D Day invasion of Normandy, when the […]

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The Bard: Sublime Poet, Ace Businessman

By Robin Bates | Published: March 9, 2011

My son Darien and I were interviewed by Boomer Alley Radio yesterday—I’ve posted the listening times below in case any of you live out west or want to check out the podcast—and while I wish I’d gotten a bit more specific about how Shakespeare applies to business, it was fun. Everything I said on the […]

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The Bard’s Business Advice

By Robin Bates | Published: March 8, 2011

Later today I’m going to be interviewed, along with my son Darien, by Boomer Alley Radio.  As producer Sharon Glassman described it to me, this is “a weekly hour-long show of upbeat, useful information that airs on the CBS news affiliate in LA, across Colorado and nationally via podcast.” Finding a post I had written […]

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The Powerful Urge for Freedom

By Robin Bates | Published: March 7, 2011

  I am in awe of the protesters in Tunisia and Bahrain and Egypt and Libya and Iran and Yemen and the Sudan and elsewhere in the Middle East. Their yearning for freedom is so great that, day after day, they put their lives on the line. I pray particularly for those in Libya and […]

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A Sweet and Virtuous Soul Chiefly Lives

By Robin Bates | Published: March 6, 2011

Spiritual Sunday Last week I wrote about how my friend Alan, beset with cancer,  has been exploring the meaning of love as his health fails. Here’s a beautiful George Herbert poem that captures Alan’s love for creation, his sadness that he must leave it, and (perhaps) his sense that his love may transcend death. Even […]

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Judge Doty in the Role of Deus ex Machina

By Robin Bates | Published: March 5, 2011

Sports Saturday Negotiations between the National Football League owners and the Players Association were at an impasse. The owners locking out the players seemed all but inevitable, along with suspension of the 2011 season.  Then the goddess Athena stepped in.  Taking the form of U.S. District Judge David Doty, she ordered the two sides to […]

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