Category Archives: Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Michael Lynch: Life Imitating Art
(Now it can be told…Michael Lynch – who died two weeks ago – is a Kansas City native and friend of Dwight Sutherland. He wrote this story two years ago but it was never published owing to a dispute over … Continue reading
Sutherland: Dear Star Editorial Board, Anybody Home?
October 19, 2018 Colleen Nelson Editorial Page Editor, K.C. Star 1601 McGee Kansas City, MO 64108 Re: Star Editorial Board Dear Ms. Nelson: I have been a reader of the Star for over 50 years. With my lifelong interest in … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
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Sutherland: The Best Gift Ever
When I was 12 years old I stayed home sick from school one time… My mother brought me (along with hot soup and cold medicine) plenty of reading material. I still have the books, which followed me through many a … Continue reading
Sutherland: ‘The Phantom Thread’ – Masterpiece in a Minor Key
After a limited run in Kansas City, what Daniel Day-Lewis has said will be his final film has now been released on DVD… It’s his second collaboration with Paul Thomas Anderson as director and with music by Johnny Greenwood, of … Continue reading
Sutherland: I’d Die for You and Other Lost Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The publication of this collection of eighteen “lost” short stories represents a mile marker-if not a capstone-in the field of Fitzgerald scholarship. As I’ve said in a prior column, finding and publishing an undiscovered work by a literary great can … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
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Sutherland: The Hypocrisy of Steve Kraske & The Kansas City Star
The progressive mindset has long since taken an adversarial posture to society… In fact, the surest way to establish one’s street cred with other members of the liberal/left is to attack the very legitimacy of our country’s traditions and institutions. … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
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Sutherland: Thought Police @ The Door (Or At least The Downtown Marriott)
Occasionally you’ll read something so powerful and timely it helps you understand things you only partially grasped before… I previously mentioned an essay by a retired Boston University professor,Angelo Codevilla. In the Fall 2016 issue of the Claremont Review of … Continue reading
Sutherland: Pembroke, The Hilltop, Cool Guys, Class Acts & Ruling Class Heroes (Part Deux)
Every school has what the alums regard as a Golden Age… A period when students, faculty, and administration were working in unison to produce a good education for its graduates, with lasting memories and friendships as happy by-products of that … Continue reading
Sutherland: (Democratic) Nightmare at 20,000 Feet
One of the all-time classic Twilight Zone episodes starred William Shatner, as a salesman who had suffered a nervous breakdown on a commercial airline flight… After six months’ confinement in a sanatorium, his wife arranges to have him released and … Continue reading
Sutherland: The Intellectual Roots of Trumpism
There has been next to no explanation of where the Trump Phenomenon has come from as far as its ideological provenance goes… We have seen some commentators dismiss it as a classic anti-intellectual right-wing populist movement, akin to the George … Continue reading
Sutherland: Living in the ‘Guilted Age’
I have been fortunate enough to hear Tom Wolfe speak in person about his writing several times over the last 40 years. The first time was in 1970, when he gave the Carolyn Cockefair Benton Lecture at U.M.K.C. Wolfe talked about … Continue reading
Sutherland: Fanfare for an Uncommon Man
Two months ago one of the most interesting people in Kansas City was laid to rest after a funeral “fit for a field marshall” (in the words of Alec Guiness from the 1959 classic “Tunes of Glory”)… The life of … Continue reading
Sutherland: What’s Wrong with America?
People have been asking for my take on this year’s presidential race… And as someone who’s been a political enthusiast for decades, I should be able to make an informed guess on what’s likely to happen in both parties, right? … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Tagged Bernie Sanders, Dwight Sutherland, Hillary Clinton
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Sutherland: Trump, Sanders? Flip a Coin
The election prospects for this country a year out are appalling in both parties… Both the Republican and the Democratic races have been dominated, at least in terms of excitement and enthusiasm, by demagogues. We have a Fascist (Donald Trump) … Continue reading
Sutherland: No More Mr. Nice Guy; Steve Rose Bears Thorns
“Afterwards, you rue the fact that you’ve been so kind.” Adolph Hitler, April 27,1945. (Last recorded remarks) R. Crosby Kemper, III has done an outstanding job running the Kansas City Missouri Public Library. He’s overseen the upgrading of library facilities … Continue reading
Sutherland: History Doesn’t Repeat Itself, But It Does Rhyme!
The foregoing quote is attributed to Mark Twain… I’ve always understood it to mean that some events reoccur in history with spooky similarity, even though they are not exactly alike in all the particulars. See if you can tell … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Tagged Dwight Sutherland, Ronald Reagan, Sam Brownback
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Sutherland: Something I Will Miss About The Star
With a number of insiders predicting the imminent demise of the Kansas City Star, I have to confess there’s one feature I will really miss if it goes… I know I date myself by this, but I’ll miss the obituaries. … Continue reading
Sutherland: When Bad Things Happen to Good People
Michelle Johnson, the Kansas City Star’s ‘Diversity Diva’, was able to put succinctly into words an idea that I had struggled with for some time… Johnson drew on her experience as an employment lawyer to explain why some types of … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Tagged Dwight Sutherland, Kansas City Star, Michelle Johnson
21 Comments
Sutherland: ‘Mad Men’ Finale or Snark Hunting, Part Deux
In a couple of weeks, the last season of “Mad Men,” AMC’s award winning drama series, will begin… Greeted with both critical and popular acclaim when it debuted in 2007, the show has gone from strength to strength and Matthew … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Tagged Daniel Mendolsohn, Dwight Sutherland, Mad Men, Matthew Weiner
15 Comments
Sutherland: An Evening to Forget with The New Yorker’s George Packer
George Packer, long time writer for the New Yorker, was this year’s Carolyn Cockefair Benton Lecturer at UMKC. He spoke Thursday on “What is ISIS and Why Are We Back in Iraq?” Much of his material came from his 2005 book, The Assassin’s … Continue reading
Posted in Dwight D. Sutherland, Jr.
Tagged Carolyn Cockefair Benton, George Packer, Isis, Marie Harf, Paul Bremer, The New Yorker
43 Comments
