Those of you expecting to see Paul Newman and Alexis Smith will be disappointed, but I’m not. This week I was lucky to lunch with two of Philadelphia’s finest: Bill Tonelli (with me, left) of South Philly and Temple University, once my colleague at Esquire, and Joe Queenan (with me, right), the pride of St. …
What American Graffiti and Breakfast Club and other movies have done in fiction, American Teen does in a documentary –and rather more powerfully. Director Nanette Burstein spent a year at the high school in Warsaw, Indiana, following around members of the senior class. Eventually narrowing her focus of the 1200 hours of film she shot …
Under threatening skies in a cozy and picturesque former Hudson River train station, twenty or so lovers of literature (or something) came to see the novelist DeLaune Michel and myself perform in a reading sponsored by the Hudson Valley Writers’ Center. The Center’s director, Jerri Lynn Fields, opened the evening with a discussion of the …
“Dark Horse is the story of Bob Long, the governor of California and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president. With this status he is afflicted only temporarily, since his all-but-secured nomination is swiftly undone through a tricky procedural maneuver sprung after some underhanded double-dealing by his rival. . . .Then, something unusual happens: God …
“Seldom is a book as ill-served by its subtitle. . . ” My review of Rome 1960: The Olympics That Changed The World by David Maraniss appeared in The Washington Post on Sunday.
I had lunch with John Stacks, my mentor, exemplar, confessor and friend during my years at Time magazine. I was delighted to see him, and to chew over the presidential campaign, the surprising delights of visiting the east of Italy, and how coop board critics are similar to Hamas. I am thrilled to say that …
I received a nice note from an artist in California named Lisa Jonte (see http://www.Girlamatic.com, or http://www.never-done.com, or http://www.Arcanumvisual.com), who was trying to track down an article I wrote called When Disney Ran America, which appeared in the June 1991 issue of Spy. After I sent her a copy, I received a lovely note that …
Because the gang’s all here. My father always said that his only request for his funeral is that we play The Beer Barrel Polka, and I’m glad we made his last wish come true. Thanks to all of the freinds and relatives who came to Dad’s viewing and funeral, and to the party that followed. …
We may all know a person, but we may not all know the same person. And obviously, we may not know the real person, the person inside. The rare stories that my father told about his youth all involved fun—-sledding and playing soccer in the shadow of the pagoda in Patterson Park, jumping off the …
Got to spend some time with my niece Megan Malanowski, the very cool 10 year-old daughter of my brother Matt. She says she harbors thoughts of becoming a writer. Sounds like she might be a good one–she’s smart, and funny, and has some written some stories that sound very creative. One lesson she has to …