The LongBow Papers

Joseph Allen Bosco, Happy Birthday Number One!

2008-04-20T20:17:00.002+08:00

Okay, big deal, so I'm six days late, shoot me, please: On April 14, Joseph Allen Bosco, my first and only granchild, celebrated his FIRST BIRTHDAY! I am certain he was surrounded by at last two very special, loving families--along with a few of my old ballplayers and second sons--in New Orleans. But, dadgum, I can't give you the picture proof because for some silly reason the Baby Joseph Allen

I'm Hurting and Soon They'll Be Cutting...

2008-04-20T18:34:00.022+08:00

It's been close to three months since I've posted to these pages. The reasons are not ideological, external (or internal) banishment, nor can I say that I was too busy. The reason is quite simple. Doctors ordered me not to. No, I don't mean that doctors specifically ordered me not to post to The LongBow Papers; the doctors ordered me not to come even close to my desk, which is where my computer

Give Me That Old Time Liberalism

2008-02-01T19:22:00.000+08:00

It is frightening but amazing what living on the other side of the world--in both distance and culture--can reveal about home to an American who understands the privilege of being one. In my case, it is from Beijing, China--the Capital of an authoritarian state far, far removed from being anyone's model of good governance--where for the better part of a decade now, I've watched and shuddered at

Sanity Rules In Taiwan

2008-01-13T18:11:00.000+08:00

It is surely no surprise to regular readers of these pages that I agree with China's central government on the national status of Taiwan. By modern international decree, at the very least, (i.e. Messrs. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.; etc., etc.) it is a province of China--which is almost universally recognized as the People's Republic of China--and should remain so, albeit with some

First Christmas

2008-01-05T16:14:00.001+08:00

Ya gotta be kidding me, Grammy. Are all Holiday Seasons this good? This is Grandpa Bosco, and well, yes, they are, Baby Joseph Allen Bosco; during those magical days and years of youth, or at least they should be. Children with the joy of wonder in their minds and hearts, who are loved by the family around them come what may, special children like you, are truly blessed. That is the essence of

The Nobility of Suicide in Beijing

2008-01-04T15:04:00.000+08:00

Dead bodies on a stage make a searing impression on an audience; Shakespeare's Othello can conveniently end with three corpses on stage. That textually logical effect and purposeful staging of the Moor of Venice was a large part of our winning First Place at the Third Chinese Universities Shakespeare Festival last year. Perhaps two will do the trick this time. Our staging of Shakespeare's

The Sound of One Shoe Dropping...?

2008-01-03T22:24:00.000+08:00

Ka-plunk roughly approximates the foreboding sound of good shoe-leather falling upon hardwood floors in the beginning revelations of illicit affairs of sex or State. There is certainly nothing sexy about the subject or object(s) of this CIA-generated Ka-plunk, which we have addressed earlier. I am too deeply absorbed into editing the 20-minute DVD movie of our Antony and Cleopatra entry in the

He Ain't Heavy, He's My 'Obstruction': Another Tale of Missing Tapes

2008-01-02T20:33:00.000+08:00

The words of Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton are heavy; but then we've seen this movie before, or certainly its closest facsimile--the missing Nixon tapes? Those less than two-dozen minutes of audio tapes, that were apparently destroyed some 35 years ago, brought down a sitting president, through resignation, for the first and only time in American history. Richard M. Nixon avoided his congressional

No Blue Christmas in Beijing

2007-12-23T20:59:00.000+08:00

It's been awhile since I've posted to these pages. Most everyone who knows me even casually knows of my decades of the Christmas Holiday blues, begun the midnight after Christmas, 1975, when my father was killed by a train on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But that is not the reason for my absence from LongBow this Holiday Season; that thing is gone, for reasons better recounted at another time,

He's Got Personality, And Then Some...

2007-11-26T23:07:00.000+08:00

It was a quiet Thanksgiving for us in China. Back home in New Orleans, however, it was another matter--it was Baby Joseph Allen Bosco's first Thanksgiving, and the family had a splendid beginning of the Holiday Season. The picture proof is below. Mr. Personality Mom Michelle and Baby Joseph. Dad Joseph and Baby Joseph. Baby Joseph's first Thanksgiving dinner, with Aunt 'Princess' almost

O. J. Simpson is Bound Over For Trial...!

2007-11-15T20:35:00.000+08:00

Get outta town! It's really going to happen. O. J. Simpson will face another criminal jury and take his chances with extralegal, mass-market manufactured perceptions, perceptions a jury is never supposed to consider during any trial and its deliberations. Except that petit juries have been doing some version of it since well before Lady Liberty was even a gleam, and they do it somewhere every

This, I Never Would Have Believed...(redux, a bit)

2007-11-13T22:00:00.000+08:00

No way. There wasn't even a chance of me believing that O. J. Simpson would one day go to trial on charges including kidnapping and armed robbery in a Las Vegas hotel room, apparently captured on audio tape. Of the many ways I imagined Act 3 of Mr. Simpson's turn-of-the-century Passion play to conclude, this one ain't even close! Jeezemtally. Do I go home to cover the damn thing? Some time ago I

Now There Are No Giants at All...

2007-11-10T23:04:00.000+08:00

Norman Mailer died today. There is nothing I can write at the moment other than to link you to an obituary in The New York Times. Norman Mailer, Outspoken Novelist, Dies at 84 By CHARLES McGRATH Published: November 10, 2007 Norman Mailer, the combative, controversial and often outspoken novelist who loomed over American letters longer and larger than any writer of his generation, died today at

A Worried Mind...continues

2007-11-07T01:46:00.000+08:00

Frankly, folks, I'm working hard at working some personal things out; but it doesn't look good at present. I appreciate the continued traffic and e-mails; and when this worried mind pulls its pitiful ass out of the sucking marsh-mud of regret--a most futile endeavor, to be sure, but we are flesh--I will get around to replying to e-mails, and posting in these pages stories still relevant to the

Happy Birthday, Linda

2007-10-24T22:24:00.000+08:00

Below is my favorite photograph of Linda Powajbo Bosco, my teenage bride, mother of our son Joseph, and my beautiful, loving wife from 1968 until 2001. Today is her birthday. I have had much reason to think of her recently, with love; although she will hate the thought and sentiment. That's okay, because no one we know mutually will tell her the post is here, upon her orders. Happy Birthday,

It's Time to Get Over It, Bosco...

2007-10-22T17:16:00.000+08:00

And there's the reason why, Joseph with Baby Joseph, on the Riverwalk, that day of days I have always lived on dreams and hope, and far more often than not, professionally, creatively, both have served me well. Would that I could say the same about my personal life. Even though hopes and dreams also fueled and guided its course through the same five decades, failures of every kind, with their

"Home"...

2007-10-11T00:17:00.000+08:00

Sylvia, Mom, me and Prince at Beach House late 50's ...ain't what it used to be, or was it ever even that? At last we are back in Beijing; nightmares private and public, to be spoken of later, delayed our return from New Orleans for some two dreadfully uncertain days. We could not imagine such a happenstance, of course. That is until attempting to check in at the Continental Airlines counter

When Can We Be Free to Tell? (Redux)

2007-10-08T16:26:00.000+08:00

NOTE: *Updated from the post of Wednesday, September 19, 2007. We will continue to mark the release of The New York Times Chinese journalist Zhao Yan after three years of harsh imprisonment. These pages will republish a few of the most distinguished of a series of op-ed pieces written on the highly visible case by then sophomore journalism majors at Beijing Foreign Studies University that first

Gone to New Orleans

2007-09-28T09:59:00.000+08:00

We're going to New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast to meet my first grandchild, Joseph Allen Bosco; leaving on a jet plane today. Home, it's been a long time coming. It will be a short visit, though, only a week, spanning the National Day Holiday. I won't be posting during the trip; we return to Beijing Saturday, October 6.

He's a Saint

2007-09-23T12:35:00.000+08:00

He is a handsome fellow, no doubt; he is the brightest light in any room he enters. In short, he is a living, breathing Saint. Don't take just my word for it; the picture proof is below. While the New Orleans Saints stumbled out of the gate at 0 - 2, Baby Joseph Allen Bosco is no tidewater front-runner; he knows that patience and optimism are two of the necessary ingredients for success.

Hear WOW's Journalists Talk About Zhao Yan

2007-09-20T21:50:00.000+08:00

Take a moment and listen to an NPI The World, Jocelyn Ford interview with three of the original authors of the Journalism and the State series on WOW. Anita -- Beryl -- LucyThese three students are First Year MA Candidates in Beiwai's Graduate School of Journalism and International Communications. Most of the dozen or so other authors are scattered across America as First Year MA

Another Thought Or Two About O. J.'s Current Troubles

2007-09-17T15:57:00.001+08:00

It is premature to speculate overmuch about the eventual disposition of O. J. Simpson's recent arrest and incarceration in Las Vegas. But, since I will not cover the case as a journalist, I suspect I'm free to muse a bit in public. Surely Mr. Simpson would not want to put this in front of a jury, no matter how weak--or strong--the case against him might be. Although nothing about the murders of

O. J. Is In Jail. Apparently He Is That Stupid

2007-09-17T13:03:00.000+08:00

Just this weekend, in these pages, I said that nothing about the never-ending O. J. Simpson saga could ever surprise me again. I was wrong. I did not believe O. J. could be stupid enough to actually expose himself to the risk of being locked up without bail facing armed robbery charges that could land him in a state prison for a number of years. Mr. Simpson is no rocket scientist, but he is not

O. J. Just Can't Keep Himself Out of the News

2007-09-15T14:30:00.000+08:00

It's amazing. From out of the blue, the traffic to these pages will sometimes abruptly double or even triple. It always puzzles me at first. But very shortly I almost always learn the reason why: O. J. Simpson is in the news, again. In this instance, he is reported to be a suspect in an "armed robbery" case. It amazes me because I have not spoken with Mr. Simpson since 1998; and I have not

Zhao Yan Is Released!

2007-09-15T13:50:00.000+08:00

Zhao Yan is free at last. Please read the article by Jim Yardley in today's The New York Times, excerpted and linked to below. Zhao Yan, center, is greeted by friends and relatives after he was released from the state security prison in Beijing.China Releases Jailed New York Times Employee By JIM YARDLEY Published: September 15, 2007 BEIJING, Saturday, Sept. 15 -- Zhao Yan, a Chinese