Essays
1095 results
Page 89
You've got mail, 1961 (Memoir)
Practical education, 1961: My brief career as a mailman
As a substitute summer mailman, I relished the fresh air and the freedom to set my own pace. I also learned how to game my employer, the federal government.
Patti Smith's punk purity
Patti Smith: The purity of a punk godmother
The Public TV documentary, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, reveals the punk icon as above all a woman of consummate purity. There's not a dram of pretense or drama in this woman; it's as if she lives each moment for the sake of exploration.
Essays
5 minute read
Peggy Amsterdam's halo effect
The fiber of Peggy Amsterdam's being
When Peggy asked politicians and public officials, “What were you thinking?!” even the thoughtless were humbled. With every fiber of her being, she understood and taught and lived a basic truth: The arts are the world's one consistent pathway to insight, humanity and yes, survival.
Essays
3 minute read
An agnostic reconsiders Jesus
Yes, Danny, there was a Jesus
How does an agnostic ex-Catholic with a Lutheran German wife explain Western civilization to his three-year-old son? In my case, it helps to understand the events of the Bible, whether or not you believe them.
Essays
3 minute read
A GI Christmas carol (memoir)
Brief encounter in Seoul: A GI Christmas Carol
I was a lonely GI in Seoul on Christmas Day. Then I met a beautiful woman who introduced me to beautiful music. That's all it took.
Essays
10 minute read
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Aunt Millie's legacy
In the blood: My aunt's legacy
While her younger sisters climbed the financial and social ladders of money and respectability, my Aunt Millie was content with her little row home and her job as an accountant. She managed to leave something of value nevertheless.
Essays
3 minute read
The making of a terrorist, 1984
‘I am a man': The making of a terrorist, 1984
Daood the Philly bartender claimed to be a Shiite. He claimed to own an arsenal of guns. He also claimed to have a sure-fire tip on the Super Bowl. Patrons at the Khyber Pass North used to laugh at him. No more.
How to save the Mummers Parade
Farewell, Dad Vail— But now let's save the Mummers
So Philadelphia may have lost the Dad Vail Regatta to Rumson, N.J. The beloved but dwindling Mummers Parade could be next. How can it be saved? By turning the parade around.
Essays
4 minute read
The trouble with government arts grants
Arts funding: It's all fixed (and everyone prefers it that way)
So you think the new Pew Fellowships procedures are flawed? Try negotiating the political thicket of government arts councils. For one thing, taste is never objective. For another, great artists aren't necessarily good citizens or even nice people. Small wonder that most art contests are implicitly fixed in the first place.
Essays
8 minute read
A cell phone adventure
Reach out and touch someone (for mature audiences only)
My cell phone was a source of constant irritation, mainly because it constantly reminded me how old and technically challenged I am. But it did open up a new world to me, although not the way you might think.
Essays
7 minute read