Sparks Commentary

Long before I watched this film, I watched another PBS documentary about  Benjamin Franklin . This earlier film was by Muffie Meyer, who has...

He was born Cassius Clay, but joined the Nation of Islam and then changed his name He was one of the greatest athletes  of the twentieth cen...

“Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writ...

“One useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress.” – John Adams It’s hard to do justice to the history of Cong...

“♪ He'd have to get under—get out and get under—to fix his little machine He was just dying to cuddle his queen But ev'ry minute...

Sometimes these three men were friends … At other times, they were cutthroat business rivals The filmmaker  Ken Burns  became famous whe...

“ ♪ How many roads must a man walk down, Before they can call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail, Before she sleeps in the...

“After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the import...

“I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer i...

“ ♪ Did you see Jackie Robinson hit that ball? It went zoomin 'cross the left field wall. Yeah boy, yes, yes. Jackie hits that ball....

“♪ Katie Casey was baseball mad, Had the fever and had it bad. Just to root for the home town crew, Ev'ry sou Katie blew. ♪ ♪ On...

"Jazz is the assassination, the murdering, the slaying of syncopation. I would even go so far as to confess that we are musical anarc...

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of pe...

"Nevada Territory is fabulously rich in gold, silver, lead, coal, iron, quicksilver... thieves, murderers, desperadoes ... lawyers, ...

"Boxing has fallen into disfavor ... The reason is clear: Jack Johnson ... has out-sparred an Irishman. He did it with little brutali...

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalie...

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continu...

"The German Government, consequently, discontinues diplomatic relations with the United States of America and declares that under th...

I have seen a lot of great Westerns, but my favorite in the genre is not a  Hollywood film  at all, but a four-hour  Ken Burns  documentar...