Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson, Simon & Schuster, 675 pages, $32.
In early 1931, Albert Einstein paid a visit to California that confirmed his status as a global celebrity. After being serenaded by 500 local girls upon his arrival in San Diego, he attended the Rose Bowl parade and visited Hollywood studios, Read More
It wasn’t a great week to try and place a news obituary in The New York Times. First Terri Schiavo died. Then there was the Pope, whose passing received the sort of coverage you’d assume would be reserved for an asteroid on a collision course with Earth, or the day we make contact with intelligent Read More
My own personal millennium ended on a high note and a low.
The high was the arrival on Dec. 20 in Dallas-a hundred miles or so south of Bowie, where my father was born in 1906-of my third grandchild and second grandson, Michael Joseph Thomas. He is by all accounts thriving, and the knowledge Read More
Building a Bridge to the 18th Century: How the Past Can Improve Our Future , by Neil Postman. Alfred A. Knopf, 213 pages, $24.
An incoming instant message from my niece appears on my screen. I hit the respond button, and we exchange exclamations. This relatively new America Online technology, so quickly becoming young people’s Read More
