
The Scratchy Line-R. O. Blechman
Few illustrators have had such an impact in a variety of media forms for so long and remained so largely unknown as R. O. Blechman. The...

ST. PATRICK's (Part III)
Above: In my First Holy Communion white suit with my brother Stephen and my parents. My father was about to turn 63 and my mom (here...

ST. PATRICK's (Part II)
The picture above was taken before my time at St. Pat's, but the feeling it evokes is very much in my memory. The regimentation depicted...


ST. PATRICK's (Part I)
For my schooling, I was a charge of the priests and nuns (and an occasional lay teacher) at St. Patrick's School in Glen Cove, Long...

WORDSWORDSWORDS # 10 (Based on or off/Whoa or Woah)
Sometimes, the language issues I raise in this series of blog posts are widely discussed by usage experts like Benjamin Dreyer (whose...

BOSSA NOVA II: WATERS OF MARCH
When my two daughters were young, I used to look forward to Friday night. The school week was done for all of us and we could kick back...

BOSSA NOVA
When I was a young boy, profound changes in popular music soon had a powerful impact on me and on much of the world. Its genesis came...

THE AUTOMAT
Joseph Horn and Frank Hardart captured the essence of America with one brilliant, liberating, egalitarian, high-concept idea a little...

A CONSPIRACY OF HOPE
For most of my life, there have been musical extravaganzas in order to raise money or awareness or both for one cause or another. When I...

MILKMAN
One of my very earliest memories involves a milkman! My mom was taking me to visit my granduncle, as I recall, and drove me a few miles...