Lev Raphael's Blog, page 58

Reviewers Should Do Their Homework

New York Times reviewer Mike Hale recently asked

Is it fair to compare "The Lady Vanishes," a new "Masterpiece Mystery!" movie with the Alfred Hitchcock thriller of the same title from 1938? It doesn't really matter, because if you've seen the original, it's impossible to do otherwise.

But you know what? He's asked the wrong question.



The real comparison should be with the book Hitchcock based his book on, The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White. It s a dark psychological thriller about Iris Carr,...

A Call From Beyond

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.



I've never believed in voodoo, magic, spirits or anything like that until my mother came to me after she died.



Actually she called. From New York.



A heavy smoker, my mother had suffered from multi-infarct dementia for almost a decade and the last time I had heard her voice, she was speaking soft Russian baby talk, having returned to her first language. It was strange but oddly comforting...

My Weekend as a Diabetic

It started with a rash. My dermatologist was puzzled that it wasn't responding fast enough to the medication he'd prescribed, so he said he wanted me tested for diabetes.



Diabetes?! I freaked out. Quietly. Internally. But I freaked out.



I had the blood test, and of course the results came on a Saturday so I couldn't talk to him to discuss them. I turned to the Internet. Big mistake.



By every single standard, with a glucose reading of 107 I was "pre-diabetic," despite the fact that I was otherw...

Anthony Weiner's Shame

A psychologist I know remarked today, "When I look at Weiner, I see a guy who was probably mocked when he was a kid, maybe even beat up."



And something clicked for me. I'd been listening to one puzzled, bemused TV commentator after another asking, "Why would he do such a thing, again?" How could he risk his mayoral race and maybe his entire political career by making the same mistakes he made a few years ago?



The answer is shame.



I've been surprised at how many people on-line have said the man i...

Jews and Trayvon Martin

Writing about President Obama's powerful and heartfelt remarks on being black in America and facing constant suspicion and even fear from whites, Charles Blow in today's New York Times quotes W.E. Du Bois in The Soul of Black Folk:

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness -- an American, a Negr...

What Anthony Weiner Could Have Said to Stay in Office Two Years Ago

The American poet John Greenleaf Whitter had some wise words that apply to everyone who tweets first and thinks afterwards: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen,/The saddest are these: "It might have been!"



Imagine how different his career had been if Anthony Weiner had fessed up when the Twitter scandal originally and used some of that caustic New York wit he was famous for. He could have said something like this:



"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I'm here today as a man who has suffered a...

What Anthony Weiner Could Have Said To Stay in Office Two Years Ago

The American poet John Greenleaf Whitter had some wise words that apply to everyone who tweets first and thinks afterwards: "For of all sad words of tongue or pen,/The saddest are these: "It might have been!"



Imagine how different his career had been if Anthony Weiner had fessed up when the Twitter scandal originally and used some of that caustic New York wit he was famous for. He could have said something like this:



"Ladies and gentlemen of the press, I'm here today as a man who has suffered a...

Selling Yourself Never Ends When You're an Author

I started publishing books back in the early '90s when authors were expected to take themselves on tour because most publishers weren't going to do it for them.



Add to that the cost of attending conferences in your genre and taking out expensive ads in the program books.



If you were a mystery author -- as I am, among other things -- you were expected to produce book-related business cards, bookmarks, postcards, and any kind of catchy, gimmicky, cutesy, presumably unforgettable nicknacks to send...

Cult Writer John Green Trashes Indie Authors

Never heard of author John Green? Plenty of people have, as the Guardian reports. He's

a social-media sensation, with more than 1.5 million followers on Twitter, a hugely popular Tumblr page and a YouTube account with more than a million subscribers, where the videos he makes with his brother Hank have been viewed more than 200m times.

His new YA novel The Fault in Our Stars is currently #16 at Amazon and the guy is a promotional genius. As Booklist reported, after Green announced that "he woul...

Are College Degrees Supposed to Be Nothing More than Job Training Certificates?

Forbes just reported on what it considers the "worst" college degrees. Their criteria? The. unemployment rate for people who had these majors and their income when employed vs. the cost of the degrees.



Archeology and Anthropology were no. 1. My own college major English was no. 10. Others included Theater and Liberal Arts.



The list amused me because I remember a discussion with an Insurance industry executive who complained that the Business majors applying for jobs at his company couldn't wri...