Big Conundrum: "WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE?" Answered Here.
Absolution, Resolution, Solution
I often hear this strong song opening with a sentiment that has haunted me since my teenage years — still does — “What’s It All About, Alfie?
If you know me, you know how shocked I’ve been lately at everything that’s gone on and is still going on — you might guess at a couple of them.
Here’s one you don’t know. Perhaps “appalled” might be a better way to describe it:
Sociologist Matthew Desmond1 thinks that extreme poverty in the US could be ‘canceled’ with about a measly $177 billion per year. You see, the top 1 percent of wealthy Americans evade $175 billion every year in taxes. Hence, an enormous amount of “suffering” could be offset, not by increasing top tax rates to what they were in higher-trust times like the 1950s (91 percent) or the 1970s (70 percent) but by merely making our richest citizens pay what they owe. Daaaa….
And now, DRUM ROLL…
One of Amazon Editors' Picks for Best Nonfiction Books of 2024, titled Hope For Cynics, The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, Grand Central Books, written by Stanford Psychologist-Director of Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, Dr. Jamil Zaki, PhD. Author Zaki discovered the secrets of conquering cynicism with what he dubbed hopeful skepticism — with this new accessible, science-backed, of-the-moment primer.
Even though this book is the result of twenty years of human-goodness research plus two years of hard, academic rigorous, not to mention, affable, deeply considered writing, I’m not convinced.
I’m told Jamil Zaki’s new book is a transformative, timely guide. New York Times best-selling author Adam Grant weighed in right off with “Cynicism is making us sick and this book is…a ray of light for dark days.” How so?
In 1972, half of Americans agreed that most folks can be trusted; by 2018, only a third did. Different generations, genders, religions, and political parties all [all?!] think human virtue is evaporating; that Cynicism is an understandable (reasonable?) response to a world filled with inequality and injustice. In multiple cases, the author assures and re-assures us, it is misplaced. (Another of his fresh takes: people are probably better than you think.)
Dozens of his studies determined that fellowmen fail to realize how kind, generous, and open-minded others truly are. In the process, this cynical thinking deepens social problems existing in the world — wars to political strife and all in between. At a time when we expect the worst in people, we, you, I, they, often bring it out in them.
The author empathizes once more that we don’t have to remain stuck in the cynicism trap. Through science and storytelling, Jamil Zaki — self-proclaimed “pseudo-introvert” — disseminates the secret for beating back the cynicism, with this so-dubbed: hopeful skepticism—that is, “thinking critically about people and our problems, while honoring and encouraging our strengths.” Hang on Sloppy, hang on.
It’s obvious that the author worked hard: Zaki combined the latest scientific data with moving, anecdotal narratives in an attempt to convince us how “cynical beliefs eat away at relationships communities, economies, and society itself.” And then concluded: Hope is the potent corrective.
A definition: Hopeful skepticism is the precise way of understanding others that can rebalance our view of human nature and help us build the world we truly want. Here’s how weighty Science Magazine put it, “Cynicism only begets cynicism. Spreading hope, trust, and good faith is a way out.” Prominently figuring into the mix, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is cited with a compelling anecdote about how cynicism gave him the moral clarity to fight for social change. Not bad.
Dr. Zaki confesses he himself was once consumed by cynicism but admits, in many cases, (I repeat his words): cynicism is misplaced. Again, some of the studies he cites and spearheads reveal that people fail to realize how kind, generous, and open-minded others really are. OK, OK. As Eliza Doolittle sang in My Fair Lady, don’t talk of this, don’t talk of that…[for sure] don’t talk of Spring, Show Me! – Lerner & Lowe.
Hopeful skepticism—the realization that people are often better than we expect—can unwind the mental traps that ensnare many of us. This approach doesn’t mean putting our faith in every politician and high-powered influencer. Rather, hopeful skepticism entails thinking critically about people and our problems while simultaneously acknowledging our power.
The bigger picture and a possible positive take away: Hopeful Skepticism is the avenue to strengthen relationships, schools, businesses, and social movements. This philosophy is not about naïve optimism; oh no, it’s about magnifying the good in people while remaining critical. What’s more, Hopeful Skepticism head-on honors humanity’s strengths whilst confronting our weaknesses. Sharing his expertise and open-hearted wisdom, Dr. Zaki illuminates his solution:
Use hope to combat the disease of loneliness.
Recognize the impact of cynicism on our behaviors.
Develop an accurate understanding of humanity.
Cultivate hope and remain resilient.
What’s more, if you and I are still not convinced, Dr. Zaki steers us into seeing beyond the allure of cynicism. (To repeat: Far from being naïve, hopeful skepticism is a more precise way of understanding others and paying closer attention.) As more of us do so, we can take steps towards building the world we truly want. Consequently, the wrap for the book HOPE FOR CYNICS might be — the title and the phrase — as a manifesto for reclaiming our faith in ourselves.
Friends, I’m going to hang with these concepts for a while to see what surfaces in my brain down the road. After all, it’s December. (My New Year Resolution is a doozy.)
Hope For Cynics, The Surprising Science of Human Goodness, by Stanford Psychologist and Director of the Stanford Social Neuroscience Lab, Jamil Zaki, PhD. Author Zaki discloses the secrets to conquering cynicism: hopeful skepticism. Grand Central Books.
NEXT: A little surprising; while we’re at it, perhaps a tad shocking. ENLIGHTEN-ING OR DEPRESSING? See what YOU think.) Paraphrased from Hope for Cynics, The Surprising Science of Human Goodness:” I CALL THIS SOCIAL MEDIA TRASHED:
Social media is entering its third decade of making people feel like this: level of shame about who I wasn’t. Facebook, launched at Harvard in 2004, then over the following two years was released, slowly, across thousands of colleges before its public release in 2006. Researchers traveled back in time by examining university records. In the months after, students became more depressed, anxious, exhausted, eating-disordered… visited counseling more often and consumed more psychiatric medicine.
After Facebook showed up, students saw their peers partying, vacationing, and generally sucking the marrow out of life…everybody’s highlight reels. In turn, that makes us less satisfied with OUR job, homes, relationships, and bodies. Broadly, Facebook and other platforms quantifying social life… by counting likes, shares, and streaks, they make it easier to compare, compete, win, and/or lose…
In the early 2010s, social media platforms were celebrated as the reinvention of global community. It’s now clear they are markets dressed up as communities, encouraging a transactional form of friendship. A 2018 New York Times column offered readers a quiz to quantify how useful their friends were, urging them to ‘identify the people in your life and score highest.’ We are ‘marketizing’ human connection itself. … And if markets have crept into friendships, they have bulldozed their way into romance.”
In retrospect, perhaps, all this and that are not so surprising, huh? At the very least, lots of grist for thought…
If it interests you, more on the subject. As my Italian father would snarl when I dared to speak up: “Another Country Heard From.” On November 11, 2024, The New York Times,2 printed an extensive article, “How the Tech That Connects Us Has Set the Stage for Isolation,” By Brian X. Chen. Worth a close look.
MAGAZINES, R.I.P.
SAD. Recently reading that world-famous publisher Hearst laid off (The New York Post wrote “fired”) 200 magazine employees, most of whom work at the company’s looming landmark “Hearst Tower” headquarters at West 57th and Broadway—I felt sad. Friends, I’m old enough to remember when magazines and newspapers were important — when they meant something.
A). Hearst, publisher of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Esquire is the latest media company to enact “cruel layoffs” of editorial employees. B). 2023 their rival Conde Nast cut 5% of its workforce, about 270 employees in a move that affected Vogue, Vanity Fair and GQ. C). In January 2024, Time magazine cut 15% of its staff (15%!) D). Not to be left out, in June 2024, “Forbes ‘laid off’ a huge amount of its staff with no notice.” Reducing staff… “as the industry continues to be beset by declining ad revenue, shifts in reader habits, and competition from digital platforms.” Forbes publications include Fortune and Bloomberg Businessweek.
Since high school back in Clarksburg, West Virginia, I longed to be a journalist. Back then, I availed every journalistic opportunity that came my way. At Washington Irving High School, I was newspaper reporter, “The Hallwalker” columnist, yearbook sportswriter for the annual and class photographer.
In college, I took multiple journalism classes, and those seminars didn’t end on graduation. After I got my degree, I took several writing classes at New York City’s New School; used up many a vacation in Los Angeles studying screenwriting with the best of them: Syd Field and Robert McKee. (Where and how did I get the money?) Like many of my friends, I should have been buying Apple stock?
I worked-in an occasional seminar at the W. 63rd Street’s West Side YMCA’s highly respected “Writer’s Voice” across from Lincoln Center. The well-thought of Writer’s Voice had been offering classes for decades long before it gave birth to a novel that became Lauren Weisberger’s 2003 novel, “The Devil Wear’s Prada.” Not chopped liver.
Then I moved into, in retrospect (I didn’t get it then), what might be called The Big Time. All while writing a by-lined double-truck general-interest column for Gentlemen’s Quarterly called “Pulse,” I did multiple cover stories for them. I was on a roll that began late summer 1979—I was dispatched to Los Angeles on assignment to interview actor Christopher Reeve. Reeve, who had recently returned to L.A. from Canada after wrapping the romantic movie, SOMEWHERE IN TIME, while cooling his heels waiting for the release, and his next project, to promote I SUPERMAN.
I spoke with Reeve in a rented house high enough in the Hollywood Hills to give you a nosebleed for the Gentlemen’s Quarterly’s, October 1979, cover. He was handsome, appealing but a tad stiff reminding me that he was never called Chris, but Christopher.
Soon after, I did an interview with another actor, who turned out to be more than a performer, Hart Bochner, for February 1980, GQ. Canadian actor Bochner cinched the role of nemesis “Rod” in the 1979 teen movie Breaking Away. He was later to direct films, do voice overs, and produce features. His GQ cover photo is dazzling.
Next, a rushed interview with Richard Gere, winter 1980, after a matinee — he was starring in the controversial hit Broadway play, BENT. Gere had originally turned down the interview only to change his mind at the eleventh hour when advance word on his upcoming feature, American Gigolo: it was not very good. (Boy, were they Wrong! That worked in my favor.). It was a productive session though his press agent, at the time well-known in New York, sat there the entire time. I ignored her and did my job. Forward some decades later, editor of the New York Daily News said that the Richard Gere cover was the best GQ in the monthly’s 50-year history. Controversy wasn’t dispelled: some wags were appalled: Gere was holding a lighted cigarette.
THRUST: Gere’s grown-up new movie, Oh, Canada, deserves noting. No comic book characters here: Paul Schrader. Uma Thurman. Michael Imperiolo. Victoria Hill. Zach Saffer. Kristine Froseth. Jacob Elordi. And ninety-one refreshing minutes.
Moving on, it was much anticipated, by me, the GQ assignment to do the cover on Ryan O’Neal, who had just completed filming THE MAIN EVENT. At New York’s Pierre Hotel, I had the pleasure of meeting two of his children, one of whom was Tatum. Years later, I was to say hello to her in Twelve Step Meetings. Then I witnessed a long photo session where lensmen took 100s hundreds of photographs of O’Neal wearing various fighter/boxer’s trunks. Hi-ho. As it turned out, GQ editor Jack Haber did not like any of the pictures and O’Neal refused to retake them. The cover was canned. I did place the Ryan O’Neal story in another publication and was paid twice. (If this sounds familiar to you, dear friend and foe, I waxed about all that in my January 2024, SUBSTACK, “Jim Fragale’s Newsletter:” titled “Ryan O’Neal, Barbra Streisand, and Taylor What’s Her Name.”
UPSHOT. I never dreamed that my love — magazines — would be deemed obsolete by something called The Internet. Now it appears, preferred reading happens most of the time on-line. Who could have dreamed that? Nostradamus?
Let me share one more heartbreak as a magazine writer, my biggest disappointment, one that haunts me to this day. In the early 2000s I began writing about my experience with pennies, yes, you-know, one cent pieces. I worked hard on it: I interviewed friends; did research; shared MY take; even included my mother’s thoughts. All that ultimately produced 19 pages. I finally got the nerve to submit a draft of “Jim Fragale and Pennies” to Newsweek. Bang-bang, they shot me down. At least, they got back to me; that doesn’t happen as often these days. And so, for many years to come, in the 2000s, I periodically continued worked on my penny story. I don’t give up easily.
Slow forward to 2008. I resubmitted the piece to Newsweek. They accepted it and dispatched a photographer to my apartment who took dozens of photographs.
On April 7, 2008, as the “My Turn Column,” feature Newsweek ran my piece as: one full page, with bold by-line, and a flattering photograph, me in the door of my dining area.
I was psyched. I made thousands of four color copies and sent them to everyone I knew. No internet copy or Xeroxes — I forwarded, a four-color full page of Newsweek’s “My Turn, with James A. Fragale’s byline and his take on The Humble Coin. (Psst. The article contained one mistake, few noticed.) Editors at Newsweek aren’t perfect, neither am I. As the Navajo Indians say as they weave a deliberate mistake into their blankets, “Only The Great Spirit is perfect.” NOTE: Syndicated columnist Liz Smith ran an item on it!
Lo, behold, and hold the landline, a few years later, someone there at Newsweek, removed my photo AND by-line. The magazine now runs the article, to this day, by a “staff writer.” Mendacity!
AN ASIDE: Did you enjoy CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF? I did. Here’s a tidbit: Brick (Paul Newman, hung, brick shit-house) with crutches challenges Big Daddy and asks whether he can face the truth. The birthday congratulations when everyone knows there will not be any more of them. Next, whoever has answered the phone laughs shrilly, "No, no, you got it all wrong! Upside down! Are you crazy?" Realizing his disclosure, Brick attempts to get Daddy to join the party. Daddy grabs his crutch as if it were a "weapon for which they were fighting for possession;" orders Brick to finish what he was saying. Brick asks that Big Daddy leave the place [the ranch?] to Mae and Gooper. PLOT TWIST: Everyone has lied to him: Daddy has cancer. "Mendacity is a system that we live in," declares Brick. "Liquor is one way out an' death's the other." Brick bolts the room.” End of Cat On A Hot Tin Roof morsel.
BACK TO SCENE AND THE BUSINESS AT HAND: There was one woman there at Newsweek who didn’t take a likin’ to me whose name I can’t remember but her last name did start with a “C.” Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.
By this time, I didn’t even have a copy, and a buddy went on-line, bought a back issue, had it mounted in a stark black frame. That “My Turn” Penny article now sits in the center of my living room. Does that editor at Newsweek know how much bad Karma she has garnered? At least a garbage truck full, complete with a double dollop of The Evil Eye. Mendacity!
COMIC RELIEF, I pray: In defense of magazines, in the play and movie, Born Yesterday, the inimitable Judy Holiday (loved Judy Holiday!) said when chastised by her keeper, bully Broderick Crawford, on how dumb she was. In defense, Holiday, rises up and proudly states, “I’m a magazine reader.” They had faces, oozed charm, back then.
WORDS, WORDS, WORDS
as Eliza Doolittle sang “Show Me,” in My Fair Lady.
“Words! Words! Words!
I'm so sick of words!
I get words all day through;
First from him, now from you!
Is that all you blighters can do?
Don't talk of stars
burning above;
If you're in love,
Show me!... Lerner and Lowe
I love words. I have no choice, I work with them all day, every day. Sometimes I’ll get stuck finding Le Mot Juste, that’s a universally-famous French phrase for “The Right Word.” I usually hold back releasing anything I write until I locate the precise words to say what I mean or mean what I say – and I still make mistakes.
WORDS RE-VISITED: Which brings me to something I want to share with you. I suspect you haven’t read it – if you did, it bears a second look: Oxford University Press, publisher of Oxford English Dictionary, revealed 2024 Word of the Year …” “Brain Rot.” (That’s two words, sirs.)
The following, paraphrased; in some cases, directly quoted from a definitive New York Times article by brilliant Jennifer Schuessler who reveals that Brain Rot is “the kind brought on by digital overloads.” What’s more, Brain Rot “triumphed” as Word of the Year over these other terms: lore, demure, “romantasy,” dynamic pricing, and slop.
Henry David Thoreau first used the word in the 1854 classic account of living alone in the woods, Walden. “While England endeavors to cure the potato-rot,” Thoreau lamented/asked, “will not any endeavor to cure the brain-rot, which prevails so much more widely and fatally?” Apparently, the answer is no way.
These days, according to Oxford, it’s invoked by young people on social media to describe the “supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state” — stemming from over-consumption of trivial online content. Over the past year, the usage surged about 230 percent.
THE PROCESS: Oxford’s Word of the Year is based on usage evidence drawn from its continually updated corpus of some 26 billion words — drawn from news sources across the English-speaking world. The point is to reflect “the moods and conversations that have shaped 2024,” backed up by substantiated data. As in the past few years, Oxford invited the public to vote on the shortlist. The winner was chosen by the publisher’s team of experts, based on the vote (37,000 people weighed in).
SOME BACKGROUND: The contest began 20 years ago, with the selection of “chav” (British slang for working class). Over time, it has anointed enduring new words like “podcast,” “selfie,” “post-truth,” along with a few head-scratchers. (Youthquake, from 2017, came in for particular abuse.) The process has affected the language. Last year, after Oxford chose “rizz” (Gen Z or Gen Alpha slang for “style, charm or attractiveness,” possibly derived from “charisma”), gobs of news coverage caused it to spike by more than 1500 percent. According to Oxford’s data, current use remains twice as high as it was immediately before last fall’s announcement. However…
This year’s list is short on flashy neologisms or blended words like “broflake” or “lumbersexual.” The lone portmanteau, [a blend of two words] “romantasy,” refers to “a genre of fiction that combines elements of romance and fantasy.”
DEMURE. The earliest recorded usage of the word “demure,” according to Oxford, was in 1377, in a reference to the sea being calm. By the late 1400s, it commonly appears as a description of people who are serious, reserved or grave in demeanor. Use surged in August, after influential influencer Jools Lebron posted a TikTok video describing her makeup and dress as “very demure, very mindful,” sparking a deluge across various platforms re-using the phrase. The “demure” moment came shortly after the big-name singer Charli XCX sent “brat” surging.
LORE. Lore dates back almost 1,000 years, is another old-timey word that has been refashioned by young social media users, to refer to facts/beliefs around a celebrity or a fictional character, or even one’s own personal history.
SLOP. Slop has undergone a similar fate, a spike of 300 percent-plus over the past year—not to pig feed, or feed pigs, but to “art, writing or other content generated using artificial intelligence, shared, and distributed online in an indiscriminate or intrusive way—characterized as being of low quality, inauthentic or inaccurate.” It represents the underbelly of today’s linguistic churn. “There’s a sense that we are drowning in mediocre experiences as digital lives get clogged.” Ha! It’s as if Ralph Waldo Emerson had observed and spoke from his crypt.
Not so surprising, Oxford is not the only language kingmaker. In recent weeks, there have also been Word of the Year announcements from Cambridge University Press (“manifest”) and Dictionary.com (justice for “demure”!). Which raises an amusing (to me) question: Could all these rival words — and the flood of news articles about them — contribute to… brain rot? Gulp. Are you reading this Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.?
The above article is quoted and paraphrased from December 2, 2024, New York Times piece by highly regarded Culture Section reporter Jennifer Schuessler at the Times since 2005. A Harvard grad, Schuessler grew up outside of Chicago. Before the New York Times gig, she was at The New York Review of Books, and then The Boston Globe. You might Google ultra-bright Jennifer Schuessler. She’s worth knowing. BTW, The New York Post did a short article on all this and offered nothing new.
New Year’s Resolution
And now, near the wrap, a few words about my New Year’s Resolution. Or to quote the 1975 hit Paul Simon song, “Still Crazy After All These Years,”
Like a hamster on a tiny treadmill, I find myself running as fast as I can these days. Not too long ago, watching a re-run, I felt as if the Red Queen in “Alice,” was speaking directly to me with pointed finger, she said “It takes all the running you can do to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run a least twice as fast as that!” I agree, it is good advice, but for me, no longer possible. Along about then, I read the bestseller Atomic Habits. Author James Clear suggests we use every spare moment, despite how small, to be productive…that by “Harnessing little habits can create lasting changes in your life.” Clear then makes clear, you must “Get one percent better each day for a year.” Surprisingly, it's not by motivation alone. Oh, no.
Real change comes from controlling, optimizing, tiny behaviors, for remarkable results in the countless, every day, tiny decisions we make. Ultimately, quite frankly, I found it exhausting. After a back-to-back busy day, I was watching late night TV, which I had never done before. I began staying up later and later… and then I had a terrible time going to sleep. Before I knew it, after tossing and turning, I’d bolt out of bed at 3:30 – 4 a.m., to attempt work on my novel. So, from me, to the Red Queen AND Mr. Clear: A Bronx Cheer!
Eventually, I saw a doctor who suggested, no sleeping pills or melatonin; instead, at bedtime, take an over-the-counter medication and call me in the morning. That hardly worked at all. I’m trying to determine what to do next. It’s now an ideal time to consider my New Year’s Resolutions. How do I, (or should I, even, I ask myself?), enact a complete 380 degree … an about face? As the Beatles sang, and I ask, “Get back to where you once belonged?” If so, where to begin? Excuse me, while I yawn and stretch… I’ll think about it tomorrow.
BONUS TRACKS
MY FAVORITE SONGS:
“The Very Thought of You,” Always liked this song sung by most everyone who recorded it and there are many — and then John Lennon once said on “Larry King Live,” it was his most loved. Mine, too.
“Smile,” I love everything about “Smile,” the lovely lyric; the melody appropriated from a classic, opera TOSCA and written for 1936 Charlie Chaplin film, Modern Times. The song has been recorded hundreds of times. I like all of them. I hesitate to share this next factoid: this tune was record by Michael Jackson who said it was his favorite song. Apologies. If you’re tempted, listen to Nat King Cole’s.
“My Funny Valentine,” I liked this song before any of the others, still revere it. If I’m correct, it’s unusual — a positive lyric with a melancholy melody. Do you feel that, too? I love the warm, personal lyrics. “Is your figure less than Greek…? Is your mouth a little weak? When you open it to speak. Are you smart? Don’t change a hair for me. Not if you care fore me. Stay, little Valentine Stay. Each day is Valentine’s Day.”
“More Than You Know,” I stop in my tracks every time this song comes on Accu-Radio (my preferred). I especially like the introduction. It’s a grown up, piece of material. To quote the last few lines of the intro of “More Than You Know”…“I’m growing fonder of you/ Even though your friends forsake you/ Even though you don’t succeed/ Wouldn’t I be glad to take you/ Wouldn’t I be glad to give you/ The breaks you need…”Vincent Youmans, Billy Rose, and Edward Eliscu, Broadway musical, Great Day, 1929, and recorded by many, many, many recording artists.
“Stardust,” I particularly like Nat King Cole on this one, also, though done brilliantly by multiple performers. And note, I’ve grown fond of the electrically engineered) duets by Nat King Cole, and his daughter, Natalie.
MY FAVORITE ALBUMS:
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim, a 1967 album by Frank Sinatra and Antônio Carlos Jobim. The tracks were arranged and conducted by Claus Ogerman. Along with Jobim's original compositions, the album features three standards from the Great American Songbook, as bossa novas. ("Change Partners," "I Concentrate on You,” "Baubles, Bangles and Beads").
Sinatra and Jobim followed up this lp with Sinatra-Jobim. Several of the Sinatra-Jobim tracks were incorporated in the Sinatra & Company, 1971 and Sinatra–Jobim Sessions compilation, 1979.
At the 10th Annual Grammy Awards in 1968, Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, but lost to Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.” Sinatra had already won the previous two Grammy awards for Album of The Years, 1967 and 1966. Shameful: It was also nominated in the category of Best Vocal Performance, Male, eventually losing to Glen Campbell's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix." Guitarist Al Viola played on "Change Partners" due to Jobim's difficulty with the track.The album was recorded on January 30 and February 1, 1967, at United Western Recorders in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Later in the evening of February 1, Sinatra and his daughter, Nancy, recorded their single "Somethin' Stupid."
“Margaret Whiting sings The Jerome Kern Songbook,” Russell Garcia Orchestra. Little know and just great. Maggie was the best, ya’ know.
Eydie Gorme – Yes, Eydie Gorme – “Don’t Go to Strangers” – highly underrated. Eleven cuts, every one a knock out—and top notch arrangements by conductor Don Costa. I’m assure you: superb.
Peggy Lee – Surprise! Peggy Lee album, “If You Go,” was arranged and conducted by the recently late, my most admired genius, Quincy Jones.
TWO MORE:
Peggy Lee – I CAN’T GET ENOUGH OF PEGGY LEE:
A) LATIN ALA LEE, with its award winning cover and B) OLE ALA LEE – Two terrific albums for all time with universal Latin flavored, I never, ever tire of. If you don’t know them do, yourself a favor and check them out. You’ll thank me.
BIGFOOT IN MOUTH NOTE
And now there’s…
“WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE?” I’ve always liked this song. We don’t hear it much anymore. I want it to live and I want help keep it alive. Here are the words.
What's it all about Alfie
Is it just for the moment we liveWhat's it all about
When you sort it out, Alfie
Are we meant to take more than we give
Or are we meant to be kind?And if, if only fools are kind, Alfie
Then I guess it is wise to be cruel
And if life belongs only to the strong, Alfie
What will you lend on an old golden rule?As sure as I believe there's a heaven above
Alfie, I know there's something much more
Something even non-believers can believe inI believe in love, Alfie
Without true love we just exist, Alfie
Until you find the love you've missed
You're nothing, AlfieWhen you walk let your heart lead the way
And you'll find love any day Alfie, Alfie — Burt Bacharach & Hal David
PHOTO-FINISH
I spent all that time mid-way on “magazines” when my most treasured effort is my second amazon.com novel F.U.! because it contains 50 of my Calabrian mother’s recipes I’ve lovingly collected over decades. Check out, F.U.! Follow Up, on BOOKS tab at the top of home page and in brackets [JAMES A. FRAGALE].
Gracie par tutti, Gracie.
Books
Step into the literary world of Jim Fragale — a realm where every page unravels a tapestry of intricate narratives, deep insights, and captivating tales from Clarksburg, West Virginia to New York City.
Matthew Desmond, onetime Harvard-Loeb Associate Professor of Social Sciences, is now a sociologist and Princeton’s Maurice P. During Sociology Professor as well as the Principal Investigator of the Eviction Lab. He’s wise, consequently, Attention Might…Must Be Paid.
At press time, I learned brilliant-mind level-headed, Opinion columnist at the New York Times Paul Krugman is leaving, 12/10/2024. Sorry to hear that and look forward to seeing his byline elsewhere. On the way out he wrote, “Why did … optimism curdle? …we’ve had a collapse of trust in elites: The public no longer has faith that the people running things know what they’re doing, or that we can assume that they’re being honest.” Mr. Krugman, you will be missed.