by John L Micek

Girl Scout cookies vs. the inverted food pyramid

Girl Scout cookies are back, and the new inverted food pyramid gives me permission to eat them — sort of. I’m addicted to Girl Scout cookies, you see. I measure Thin Mints servings by the sleeve, not the cookie. I gobble down Tagalongs the way g..

February 10, 2026

Antisemitism and blatant hatred on display in Philly

One of my favorite stars is Gregory Peck, because he embodied what I always believed to be the American ideal: a handsome man who spoke quietly, but whose moral center was rock solid. Of course, he was Atticus Finch, fighting racists in the Deep Sou..

February 9, 2026

Trump’s racism is sadly in sync with the American id

My friends would tell you I have a freakish memory. On the up side, I know the date of the Mets-Pirates double-header I saw at Shea Stadium (July 3, 1966), and I know the date I was hiking the rim of a canyon in Yellowstone (July 30, 1977). But on t..

Too much news: Top ten cartoons of the week

Are we ever going to have another slow news week? Trump threatening to nationalize elections, A.I.'s continued stampede through our lives, the Washington Post's implosion, and the Super Bowl are just some of the topics that made our list of the most ..

February 5, 2026

Ahead of the Super Bowl, thinking of Broadway Joe

I’ve been around long enough to have seen the Super Bowl games since the first one kicked off in 1967. “Seen” is too strong a word. Early on, I watched every play, glued to the television. But for the last several years, the game has been on b..

Lawncare woes

People say I’m stubborn about lawncare, but I’m not. I look at every suggestion with an open mind before I say “No.” The trouble of living in New Jersey is that my lawn decides to die right about September and continues to be yellow and wisp..

Trump’s war against Black history

To paraphrase Queen Elizabeth II, 2025 is not a year we'll look back with undiluted pleasure It was indeed a challenging year, or as the late queen said in 1992, an “annus horribilis,” for postsecondary education. It was a particularly distressi..

February 4, 2026

Is ‘hot take dating’ right for you?

Tyrades! by Danny Tyree “You don’t have to tell your guts!” My mother’s colorful phrase for practicing verbal restraint would be mocked by proponents of the viral dating trend called “hot take dating.” Once upon a time, people in the dat..

These tariffs could make healthcare in the U.S. worse

Despite considerable evidence to the contrary, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik and the tariff gang think the imposition of tariffs on foreign-made medical devices won’t hurt the quality of healthcare here in America. The argument they’re puttin..

February 3, 2026

On Pretti and protesters in Minneapolis

ICE has been out of control over the past few months, and particularly since the beginning of this year. Over the three decades I’ve been practicing immigration law, I’ve never seen the level of chaos and division, fomented by the rhetoric of Do..

February 2, 2026

The F-word is finally and rightly ubiquitous

Let’s talk about the F-word. Not the one uttered 269 times in "Reservoir Dogs" and 569 times in "The Wolf of Wall Street." I’m talking about the one that should be on everyone’s lips - because it so concisely describes our current hellhole and..

When Groundhog Day becomes controversial

Groundhog Day levity has arrived just in time — but not everyone thinks so. Every Feb. 2, Phil the Groundhog emerges from his burrow at Gobbler’s Knob in Punxsutawney, Pa. If he sees his shadow, winter will last six more weeks; if not, spring is..

January 30, 2026

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