I was a closet Beatles freak until about the time "Rubber Soul" was released.  

Being a 14-year-old putz wasn't easy for someone who'd never planned on being one, but hormones and an unsuspected blast of teenage lonlieness provided lessons I was quick to learn. I was the Sneering One.… Read full post »

A senior administration official said in an e-mail message that the press secretary, Robert Gibbs, called the White House shortly before 6 a.m. and woke the president with the news.-- The New York Times

 

I placed the followin ad in the “Personals” section under the “Sidekicks Wanted” listing:

 

"Single, grizzled gentleman to accompany and admire heroic archetype. Ability to fry eggs, boil coffee over open fires and splutter incomprehensibly (though not profanely) a mus… Read full post »

Words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

&… Read full post »

Conservative humorist P. J. O'Rourke needs no introduction from me. But I do, and Mr. O'Rourke has just provided me one.

I recently wrote an essay for an anthology entitled "Woodstock Revisited." Mr. O'Rourke reviewed the anthology in his column in The Weekly Standard a few weeks back.

I won't repeat h… Read full post »

What follows is an excerpt from a story I wrote for the new anthology "Woodstock Revisited." I'd hoped to post the whole story but -- understandably -- the publishers aren't keen on having their bought-and-paid-for authors giving away what they're trying to sell.

IN the wake of the latest uproar about  "blog pimping," I visited a freind of mine's new site and found the following question, answer and warning. His post felt very much like a return to fundamentals;  it reminded me that I'd voiced objections to using that phrase and its cousin, "blog-wh… Read full post »

 They come to me whenever they want, these moments, arriving unbidden and with unexpected force. They can't be conjured intentionally. The instant I recognize them, they dissipate like the smoke that used to curl from the White Owl cigars he used to love to smoke.

I can't even claim to recognize… Read full post »

 

 

NBC newsman Tim Russert died a year ago Saturday. This reminiscence (since re-written) first appeared in the The Middletown (N.Y.) Times Herald-Record: 

I once spent a week in New York City in the company of Jerry Lombardo, Pat Hoak and Tim Russert.

You'… Read full post »

Several recent posts have documented the latest appearences of the notorious hate group known as the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan. Four years ago, the sons and daughters of the Rev. Fred Phelps descended like a latter-day Biblical plague on the college town of New Paltz, N.Y,… Read full post »

She's been that way all her life. Let me show you some photos.

Here she is sitting on a picnic…

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Journalism, like every other profession, speaks its own language. Unlike every other profession, journalists speak this language publicly. And though it appears paradoxical, journalese is also a secret language, even, sometimes, to its practitioners. Unless, of course, you've… Read full post »

Master journalist Pete Hamill gave a talk entitled "Our Imperfect Craft" to a group of mostly young journalsits from around the country Friday evening. The occasion was the first Mike Levine Writers Workshop. I don't have a transcript but I do have a few pertinent quotes:… Read full post »

 

This past weekend's front-page focus at OS on the parlous state of journalism held more than a theoretical or ideological interest for me. I'm a newspaper reporter, so there's nothing abstract about the issues surrounding whether and how newspapers will survive.

Everybody has a theory about "the med
…

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When it comes to failure, insurance giant AIG had re-written the book. I won't bore you with the financials here.