

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...


BIG RED
The greatest athlete of my time...was a horse. I have followed many sports--my beloved baseball, football (college and professional),...


WORDSWORDSWORDS#11 ("Brand" new)
I was listening to a commercial the other night and heard the phrase "brand new" used to describe the appearance of an object after the...


The Popular Song: COMPARED TO WHAT
In the mid-70s, among the many jobs I undertook while I was working my way through college and grad school, I tended bar at Gilly's, a...


The Popular Song: MISS OTIS REGRETS
I will be adding a series of posts about popular (or obscure) songs composed and performed in the age of popular song (by which I mean...


THE LIT PRIZE
Now that I am officially retired, one of the traditions I will miss is acting as a bookie and taking bets from my students on the Nobel...


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...