GIVE A DAMN
During the school year in 1968, my cousin Tom Horan bemoaned the fact that he couldn't collect much in the way of charitable donations from friends and neighbors for a school club campaign. He was tasked to raise funds for the New York Urban Coalition, who were promoting an intensive campaign to improve life in the New York City "ghettoes". I no longer hear that term used, but that's not because there aren't areas of New York that couldn't use help. Even though the term was
ANIMAL CRACKERS
Recently, I watched Animal Crackers for the umpteenth time. Actually, I rewatched many of the Marx Brothers' comedy classics, as I have done with regularity since I was a teenager. But it was seeing Animal Crackers again that brought back this specific memory. In the late '60s and early '70s, there was a revival of interest in the comic films of Chaplin, Keaton, Mae West, and the Marx Brothers. Revival film houses were once popular and successful, and it was not uncommon f
FUN AND GAMES
When I watch my grandchildren, or really any kids at all, I am often amazed at how sophisticated (even jaded at times) they are. They seem like young adults long before they have actually reached the "age of majority", as I have not heard it called for quite some time. I remember well that when we were little kids, it was essential to occupy ourselves for many hours, alone or with friends or even sometimes with strangers, kids we didn't know who were also looking for someon
CRYPTOQUOTE
When I was a ninth-grader, I devoured books--often completing a book a day, if not more. Of course, as was my practice, I didn't always...
FLY PAPER
When I taught my Cinema Studies elective classes, I would always devote time to one of Buster Keaton's masterpieces--Sherlock, Jr. Early...
THE MAKE BELIEVE BALLROOM
Every generation has its own music, and as a child of the 60s, I feel very fortunate to have grown up with the Beatles, and Bob, and...
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT
The following is all true. These events took place in the mid-1970s. When I was a first-year teacher of students in 8th-12th grades at...
THE ROYAL VIKING
My first job was delivering Newsday, Long Island's tabloid paper, on my bicycle in the afternoons. My second job was tending to fifteen...
ALTERNATIVE FACTS
I'm having a little fun with this blog post title alluding to the "alternative facts" touted by Kelly Ann Conway when she was challenged...
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...
