1950s | 1950s
May.22.2013
The Time: Autumn, 1958. The place: the playground of the Washington Consolidated School, Washington, Connecticut. A big crowd of kids are in a circle around two fighting boys. Jimmy Crickskin has his arm hooked around Billy Dils’ neck from behind. Jimmy’s got Billy on the ground, a leg also hooked...
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Feb.24.2013
I got the idea for today’s post from a very unusual program of This American Life. The topic of the 1996 broadcast was Accidental Documentaries. It told the stories of old audio tapes from the late 1960s which were discovered accidently in thrift store in Chicago. These tapes were...
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Dec.23.2012
For the next five days -- December 24, 2012 to December 28, 2012 -- my new novel, Perfect Red will be free on Kindle. I decided to do this giveaway to get the word out about the book during the biggest downloading week of the year. I don't actually own a Kindle myself. I'm partial to books printed...
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Nov.29.2012
In September we talked about Boomers buying and selling their youth. Let’s take it a step further … what’s in your closet, garage or attic that you can reminisce over for a few minutes … and then let it go?
I ask because I’ve had to do that recently. Let’s face it – times are tough and some of us...
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Nov.06.2012
Girl magazine 1951
vol 1 no 1 November 2 1951
A sister paper to Eagle first page cover page is. The new super colour weekly for every girl.
First page Kitty Hawke and her all-girl air crew (till vol1 no 21 march 21 1952 the last installment of Kitty).
The editor of the magazine is a man Marcus...
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Feb.21.2012
My latest piece is up at First of the Month ("The only leftist publication I could imagine being read at both Columbia University and Rikers." What a great quote!) You can read it here:
http://www.firstofthemonth.org/archives/2012/01/matinees_memori.html
If you need more of an...
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Jul.28.2011
My Mom took her last breath two years ago today, a shallow one that barely moved her chest, and then she was gone. But here in the glass-fronted cabinet in my living room, I keep small artifacts of her life to take out and hold when I'm thinking of her.
Today I chose the tin measuring...
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Dec.10.2010
My latest piece at "First of the Month" begins:
"At the conclusion of a dream that included my descending in an elevator with a hooker and leaping a barrier to catch a subway train, I found myself on a park bench taking out a notebook to describe my collection of .45 rpm records to...
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Oct.08.2010
My latest reminiscence about growing up in West Philadelphia -- about the '50s, homosexuality and "American Bandstand" -- sort of a "Now It Can Be Told" -- is out and available in the anthology "First of the Year: 2010." You can read about it here:
http://www....
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Apr.22.2010
Men Creating Men
In Robert Silverberg's World's Fair 1992,the young hero, Bill, is projected into an adult world, in which he must prove himself to be equal to the men around him. He has won a competition by writing an essay about life on other planets, and the prize is a trip to and a job at, the...
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