Lev Raphael's Blog, page 43

Is Jake Ballard Really Dead?

Last night Scandal fans saw one of Poppa Pope's assassins stab Jake Ballard in the gut a handful of times and leave him bleeding out on the floor of Olivia's empty office. The moment had deep irony, because Olivia's father is very good at fixing her up with bad boys; she's currently sleeping with the guy who killed Jake -- maybe.

The teaser for next week showed Jake's bloody body on their conference table and the cry "Jake is dead!"

On Twitter and Facebook, Scandal fans went wild with sho...

Growing Up With the Holocaust as a Writer

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, but when you grow up with Holocaust survivor parents it's always with you. My father, who survived Bergen-Belsen, was silent about what happened to him until his 80s, when I first interviewed him for my memoir about what it was like for me to grow up in the shadow of the Holocaust, My Germany .

My mother talked about her experiences more openly, but mostly in fragments. Even when I was a teenager, I was too stunned by the horrendous things she told me about...

Hillary Clinton's First Hundred Days

After exhausting secret negotiations, President Clinton announces the first major worldwide nuclear disarmament deal signed by the U.S., Russia, China, North Korea, Israel, India, Pakistan, England, and France in which all countries have pledged to drastically reduce their stocks of nuclear weapons over a five-year period with the ultimate aim after ten years of eliminating nuclear weapons entirely. Regular inspections will be held by the UN and teams from all nine signatories. Leaders of the...

15 Howlers from Fifty Shades of Grey

I recently re-read Mark Twain's smackdown of James Fenimore Cooper's dreary 1841 novel The Deerslayer which Twain ends with this barrage:

...it has no lifelikeness, no thrill, no stir, no seeming of reality; its characters are confusedly drawn, and by their acts and words they prove that they are not the sort of people the author claims that they are; its humor is pathetic; its pathos is funny; its conversations are -- oh! indescribable; its love-scenes odious; its English a crime against th...

The Return of Ziva David?

I'm one of those NCIS fans who miss Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), so when I saw trailers for The Dovekeepers, I was intrigued.




I'd been to Masada, which is the climax of the story. It's the fortress that close to a thousand Jews fled to after the destruction of The Temple in 70 C.E. They committed suicide rather than be taken alive and paraded as captives in Rome when the Romans successfully besieged it in 73 C.E. I'd also read about Masada and seen the TV miniseries in the '80s with Peter...

The Return of Ziva David

I'm one of those NCIS fans who miss Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), so when I saw trailers for The Dovekeepers, I was intrigued.




I'd been to Masada, which is the climax of the story. It's the fortress that close to a thousand Jews fled to after the destruction of The Temple in 70 C.E. They committed suicide rather than be taken alive and paraded as captives in Rome when the Romans successfully besieged it in 73 C.E. I'd also read about Masada and seen the TV miniseries in the '80s with Peter...

Lena Dunham's Dog Quiz Is Shameful

If you somehow missed it, Lena Dunham is being excoriated for a 35-question "quiz" she published in the venerable New Yorker last week titled "Dog or Jewish Boyfriend?" where readers had to choose which item best fit whom. It had such hilarious items to ponder as:

8. I feel that he is judgmental about the food I serve him. When I make something from scratch, he doesn't want to eat it, but he also rejects most store-bought dinners.

9. This is because he comes from a culture in which mothers...

Dog or Lena Dunham? A Short Quiz

Do the following describe Lena Dunham or my West Highland White Terrier?

1) Over-praised and over-paid.

2) Has a frisky gait.

3) Tiresome and unfunny.

4) Is charming company.

5) Pisses people off on a regular basis.

6) Sometimes smells a bit, but talcum powder takes care of that.

7) Well past 15 minutes of fame.

8) Looks good in white.

9) Amazingly loyal.

10) Has great eyes.




Lev Raphael is the author of 25 books in genres from memoir to mystery to historical fiction. You can e...

Shonda Rhimes Mainstreams Gay Marriage

I've been critical of Scandal, one of my favorite shows, when it's sometimes seemed to go off the rails, but last night Shonda Rhimes did some powerful cultural work.

Many episodes ago, Cyrus Beene, White House Chief of Staff, got caught in a relationship with a male escort, Michael, who was being used against him in another one of Scandal's byzantine plots. Olivia Pope, brilliant fixer, helped shut it all down. The blackmailer was defanged and Michael was publicly presented as Cyrus's lovin...

Why I'm Wild About Looking

It's official. HBO has canceled Looking, a lovingly crafted and beautifully written show about a tight-knit group of friends looking for love and stability in San Francisco. It was subtle and low key and I think that's why it flew under the radar and even garnered an amazing amount of invective and derision from some viewers.

Now, my spouse and I watch a lot of pretty intense TV: Game of Thrones, Scandal, The Walking Dead, How to Get Away With Murder, Madame Secretary, The Americans.

But w...