The Observatory
Jeremiah Horrigan
- Location
- New Paltz, New York, USA
- Birthday
- February 04
- Bio
- Former Knight of the Altar, St. Martin's parish in South Buffalo, NY. Old enough to remember ducking-and-covering from the nukes that Sister Jeanne assured us were coming our way, defending Santa Claus until age 10, hating sports, being effectively blind until fourth grade, wanting to fly, escaping to Westchester County for three years, re-escaping to Buffalo for most of high school, escaping to Fordham U to grow a moustache and smoke a lot of oregano-laced pot, escaping school, getting political, getting arrested, getting tried, convicted and released for crimes against the draft. Husband to Patty, father to Grady and Annie. Housepainter, cab driver, idiot, then newspaper reporter in Poughkeepsie, years of freelancing (Sports Illustrated, New York Times, Negligent Mother Magazine) and shameful indulgence, followed finally by 15 more years of reporting, column-writing, some awards, discoveries large and small along the way, including these: Sister Jeanne was full of beans, writing is good for the soul and I'm the luckiest man alive.
MY RECENT POSTS
- Making peace with the Point
May 27, 2012 10:38PM - Some snapshots of a beautiful
woman
May 13, 2012 12:32AM - What a teenager's "prank"
tells us about the man he's
become
May 10, 2012 09:35PM - The football draft? It used to
be a lot simpler (a re-post)
April 26, 2012 10:37PM - Saying good-bye to the
Gentleman from Arkansas
April 19, 2012 02:54PM
MY RECENT COMMENTS
- “Maria: Many thanks. It's
gratifying that you recognized
my
aim in writing this
pi…”
10:19AM - “Kent: I've often -- very
often -- had the same
wondering
thought.
Kent:
I've
writt…”
May 27, 2012 01:40PM - “It's pained me ever
since I discovered Randy
Newman's debut
album that so
few peo…”
May 26, 2012 12:03AM - “Emily:
thanks.
Stathi: It's
the truest conclusion I could
draw. I may
have
taken…”
May 23, 2012 12:19AM - “Thank you Bell.”
May 16, 2012 10:15AM
Jeremiah Horrigan's Links
Levon Helm, drummer, singer and songwriter for The Band, died Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
I'd sing him a song, but I can't sing. Hours after his death, I heard a song on the radio that he sang not too long ago. To me, it's his elegy. I've wrapped my memories of him around the… Read full post »
I always wanted to be a writer like my dad. He was a sportswriter. Ever since he was a kid, he was mad about sports. After he got out of the Navy in 1945, and for as long as he lived, he made sportswriting the center of his life.
I hated playing… Read full post »
NFL training camp will begin within days. That means football is back from the bargaining table. This makes me happy. But there was a time when the arrival of training camp was a pure misery for me.
Many years ago, in the summer of 1966, I was… Read full post »
I was a 19-year-old college freshman who felt unduly burdened by my father’s insistence that I get a job as well as attend the occasional class at Fordham University in the Bronx in the autumn of 1969.
Dad did more than insist I work – he got me a job. Every… Read full post »Being a 14-year-old putz wasn't easy for someone who'd never planned on being one. But the mysterious introduction into my teenage body of strange hormones, the sudden emergence of an outsized honker, a generous splash of zitz and the resultant blast of teenage lonlieness provided less… Read full post »
My father cleared his throat and fixed me with a serious eye.
“Let’s go down to my office,” he said.
I was only 10 years old, but I knew trouble was on its way. Downstairs was Dad’s domain. None of us were expected there, unless we had a load of laundry… Read full post »
Edwin Newman, a network news reporter whose wit and high professionalism made being a network news reporter seem a gallant, even alluring, calling, has died at the age of 91.
The New York Times obit describes him as being “genteely rumpled, genially grumpy,” a man of “constituti… Read full post »
Being a 14-year-old putz wasn't easy for someone who'd never planned on being one. But the mysterious introduction into my teenage body of strange hormones, the sudden emergence of an outsized honker, a generous splash of zitz and the resultant blast of teenage lonlieness provided less… 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
The Catholic Church is bringing back a theological Golden Oldie called "plenary indulgences."
To Catholic Boomers like myself -- Caboomers -- indulgences were nothing less than a ticket to Heaven -- a free pass from purgatory's fires for you and yours, a bailout for your very soul. Indulgences… Read full post »
Though I'm an old-fashioned kind of guy -- I still don't have a Facebook page, prefer CDs to MP3s, wish snap-brim fedoras would come back in style -- I have to admit that thing Amazon's been selling a ton of is my nominee for Transformative Technological Piece of the year.… Read full post »
Erica K
Patty Kane Horrigan
Alan Milner
Christine Bollerud
Christina Simon
Ann Bancroft
Salon.com