Showing 1 - 10 of 45
Up to par
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 01/11/2019
» The first thing I did when becoming a newspaper film reviewer was to import a shortcut from the West: evaluating movies with stars. One Trink star was for the very worst motion picture, five Trink stars for the very best. Which was followed by a paragraph explanation. Readers approving my cinema tastes thus knew on what to spend -- or save -- their earnings.
Desert graveyard
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 27/06/2019
» While not as prestigious as Nobel Laureates, Pulitzer Prize awardees are highly regarded in the US. The annual recipients are rewarded for works a giant step above their colleagues.
Barbed humour
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/10/2018
» It was as a soldier boy in President Truman's "Police Action" that I first visited Asia -- South Korea and Japan.
Double-whammy master
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/02/2018
» By using fire for cooking, Homo sapiens took a step higher on the food chain. It made eating mammoths easier on the digestion. The press was another step. Print replaced cave drawings, clay pressings, stone carvings, papyrus. Books were cloth- or leather-bound.
A Chinese empire?
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/11/2017
» As a youngster in the Big Apple during the Great Depression, I recall men with billboard signs with "The world is coming to an end -- REPENT". The people they passed on the streets shrugged them off. l didn't fully understand what it meant, but I knew that threats aren't to be taken lightly.
Be prepared
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/06/2017
» A reporter outside my homeland for more than a half-century, I never had the gall to call myself a foreign correspondent, lacking the qualifications of working for an American publication -- my byline in India, Japan and Thailand notwithstanding -- even though Time magazine gave me an honourable mention.
A woman's world
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 12/05/2017
» The payoff of my having spent years as a backpacker and visiting over 50 countries is that I remember them all, some more vividly than others. That gives me an advantage when reviewing the books and movies set in one or more of them, over those who remained at home. Yes, I know that area. No, it's just a set or a bit of poetic license.
Enough is enough
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 30/03/2017
» During my grade-school years in the Big Apple enduring the Great Depression, movies were too expensive and there was no television. Radio provided the only affordable entertainment to us working families. Mom listened to soap operas while doing the housework and I was a captive audience.
Two wives, one husband
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 17/03/2017
» For multi-millennia, marriage has been about possession. Hands of he/she belong to me. To be sure, in most societies the husband got the best of it as the wife's belongings became his. Why else wed? Well-to-do widows, with both her and her late spouse's goods in her hands, were the prize catch.
Lock up your daughters
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 30/12/2016
» Of all crimes, those against children are the most heinous. While they may not all be innocent, they are weak and vulnerable, expected to be protected from the dangers of the world and shown the right path by their parents and respected members of their community.