by RobertTownsend | Mar 29, 2015 | Croatia, Deception, Liar
Facebook vs. the public toilet Broadcasting one’s impassioned message was harder back in the old days. For most of us, the public restroom was enough. One found a pen, composed an impassioned plea, then sat with trousers at ankles, and scrawled on the wall....
by RobertTownsend | Mar 21, 2015 | Deception
Noble lie, big lie and the ’cause’ P.T. Barnum, were he our contemporary, might now say, There’s a true believer born every minute. Nice people these true believers, our cousins, brothers, friends (plus that one gazing back at you from the mirror),...
by RobertTownsend | Mar 14, 2015 | Deception, Russia, Soviet Union
Believers and fools, liars and dupes The Executioner’s Son It is 1960. Two brothers, Russian Jews, meet in an abandoned warehouse in the Baumanskaya District of Moscow. It had been two decades since they had last seen one another. Blood under the bridge, my...
by RobertTownsend | Dec 16, 2014 | Deception
Deception in Moscow, 1961 The ‘middle morass’ of The Executioner’s Son, that miserable time when, between the sparkling first scenes and a dramatic conclusion, you sit in that writing swamp struggling to “The End.” A 1900 Russian short...
by RobertTownsend | May 10, 2014 | Deception, Germany, Russia
Great Nightmares I am a Germanophile. There is not much about this land I do not admire. When I first lived in Germany (Berlin, 1970-75), I was young, inexperienced and busy; my goal was to have a good time. The second time I lived in Germany (Rheinland-Pfalz,...