A hearty welcome to all visitors and readers to this site. Students as well as all those who feel that we are never too old to learn something new, or to re-learn what we may have forgotten with the passage of time.

During my long teaching career I was often told, both by my students and by my colleagues, that I was very helpful to them. I hope I can still be helpful to you, my visitors and readers. It will, of course, be up to you to decide this. Should you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me. I have been known to give helpful responses to students as well as to others who have contacted me in the past.(For your convenience, my e-mail address is listed on every page in this Web site. Usually at the top, in the left-hand column, and always at the bottom of each page.)

I sincerely hope that you will find most of what is here enjoyable and entertaining as well as informative and insightful. Pick and choose to your heart's content. And visit again and again. There is a lot to read here, too much for any one session. So I hope to see you more than once.

On a perhaps deeper level, I wish to dedicate this site to the love of words that both writers and readers share. Words embody our thoughts and express our feelings. They convey what we think and feel and know. They reveal who we are, both to the world and to ourselves.

My aim is to share with all my readers and visitors to this site samples from my work - past, present, and future. I have many interests, as the samples here included should indicate (and they don't represent all my interests). Some of the samples are fairly long (formal lectures, in some cases), while others are short (and perhaps sweet). Whatever I write, I write from the heart as well as from the head. And my aim is always to promote those values which are truly worthy of our collective humanity.

This Web site is also dedicated to the art of thinking, and to reading and writing, as well as to an abiding love of movies, particularly as this is reflected in the samples from Hollywood Values. The book is available from the publisher at 1st Books Library (recently renamed AuthorHouse). You may also order it from Amazon.com or from Barnes & Noble Online. Should you wish to order it in your favorite bookstore, you may have to remind the staff that this is a print-on-demand book. Such books sometimes show up in their computers as out-of-print books.

The site also contains essays on literary criticism, as well as thoughts on the teaching of reading and writing and critical thinking (some of which were previously published). I also include papers on English and American and Hungarian literature, and literature in general.

You will also find a number of book reviews here, some of which originally appeared in the Bay Review, an online journal no longer in existence.

I keep some samples from my poetry and fiction on this site as well.Then there is the section called Controversies Now and Then. This deals with issues I feel strongly about. These include attempts by various groups to censor the wonderful Harry Potter books or, more recently, the unduly harsh treatment accorded to Martha Stewart a while back. Of course, as we all know by now, she is free once more and is back to give us new lessons in cooking, etc. Good for her! I don't know what else I'll be adding to this section. It all depends on what comes down the pike.