There is absolutely nothing in the world I like more than calling strangers at their homes over dinner and asking for money. There is just no faster way to make friends and influence people. And so I might be calling you on Tuesday night – especially if you live in Vermont. I will be dialing […]
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As a Vermonter, I try to have Cal Coolidge’s back. I do this because he was a Vermont-born United States President, because we graduated from the same college, and because he endured a horrific personal tragedy that some historians suggest shaped the last four of his five years in office. A month after he was […]
We are fast approaching the holiday season, that time of the year when we are all a little kinder and a little more generous, as long as that kindness and generosity doesn’t involve sacrificing a parking space within sight of the shopping mall. It’s that moment on the calendar when we want to be particularly […]
This is the cover of the January 2014 “Writer’s Digest.” I blush. The interview was conducted by editor Jessica Strawser. Her questions were terrific and I found myself learning a lot about why I do what I do — and, perhaps, understanding a little better myself the method to my madness. Here is a link […]
This photo is of my mother and Warren Nelson — her brother and my uncle. He was a paratrooper in the Second World War and jumped in June and September 1944. He was wounded in December of that year in Bastogne. Along with my father and my Uncle Fred Muench, he was a veteran. Today […]
Earlier this autumn when I was at the Miami International Airport, I had an unexpected Proustian flashback. When I was in tenth grade, I missed my first three morning classes one day almost every week because I was at the restaurant on the top floor of that airport singing with the Miami Kiwanis Club. For […]
Most of you probably remembered to set your clocks back one hour last night before shutting out the lights, and thus scavenged an extra hour of sleep. I have always liked that bonus hour. Here in the center of Lincoln, the end of daylight saving time means that the sun is going to fall behind […]
Halloween is but days away, that night of the year when the streets are filled with children dressed up as ghosts and goblins and John Boehner. (Trust me, you won’t be able to schedule five minutes at a tanning salon between now and November 1.) It is also, alas, that evening when many of us […]
This is a story of sibling rivalry, and it begins with a confession: I’m an NFL junkie. This surprises people. Let’s face it, I’m supposed to be a bookish sort of guy. A writer – and not even a sportswriter. Moreover, I’m a stage dad of an only daughter. There are not a lot of […]
Once upon a time on this date, I was alone in a Brooklyn apartment so pathetically hungover that I was calling my mother and father – who knew a lot about hangovers – and asking them for the quickest way to unscrew the vise grip that was squashing my skull. I vaguely recall whispering (yes, […]
