Sunday Poetry: Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
InvictusOut of the night that covers me,Black as the Pit from pole to pole,I thank whatever gods may beFor my unconquerable soul.In the fell clutch of circumstanceI have not winced nor cried aloud.Under the bludgeonings of chanceMy head is bloody, but unbowed.Beyond this place of wrath and tearsLooms but the Horror of the shade,And yet the menace of the yearsFinds, and shall find, me unafraid.It matters not how strait the gate,How charged with punishments the scroll.I am the master of my fate:I am the captain of my soul. - William Ernest Hen

What Kind of Beer Goes With Turkey Dinner? 5 Beers for Thanksgiving
This time of year, wine writers do their best to graft a wine choice onto a dinner that does not really go well with wine. Bland turkey with side dishes running from sweet to rich and savory presents too complex a meal for a single wine to complement successfully. Most wind up recommending something like pinot noir or an oaked chardonnay as the least dissatisfactory, or they give up entirely and recommend Beaujolais Nouveau because it's coincidentally available at this time of year.Thanksgiving is meant for beer. Indeed, the pilgrims landed

Sunday Poetry: An Ex-Judge at the Bar, by Melvin Tolson
An Ex-Judge at the Bar Bartender, make it straight and make it two—One for the you in me and the me in you.Now let us put our heads together: oneIs half enough for malice, sense, or fun. I know, Bartender, yes, I know when the LawShould wag its tail or rip with fang and claw.When Pilate washed his hands, that neat eventSet for us judges a Caesarean precedent. What I shall tell you know, as man is man,You’ll find neither in Bible nor Koran.It happened after my return from FranceAt the bar in Tony’s Lady of Romance. We boys drank pros and cons, sang Dixie; and then,T

Photography Tips for Black Professionals, and a Lengthy Digression on the Nature of Friendship
I had lunch yesterday with one of my African-American friends. Yes, that's a plural. I really do have more than one African-American friend, depending on how you define friend. Important Digression: I mean, really, the line between friend and acquaintance gets kind of blurry, and the term "friend" depends on context. If a given person gets indicted or says something controversial, s/he is more likely to be an acquaintance than a friend. "Yeah, I know him/her," I'll say, with a roll of my eyes to make certain that the person knows that my disapproval of the person started long before the current brouhaha. I realize that makes me sound disloyal. In

Terrorists Defeat Republicans
It's sadly amusing to see how upset Republicans are that the Obama administration is going to put Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other co-conspirators on trial in U.S. District Court in New York City for their role in the 9/11 attacks. The Republicans are frightened to the core about the thought that America is not good enough, not strong enough, not prepared enough to face up to these monsters. They are, in a word, terrorized.Giuliani is fretting about the danger these bound and shackled men pose to the city, as if Batman: the Dark Knight was a documentary. He's terrorized.