Sam Barry's Blog
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Nov.16.2009
This weekend I was in Miami for the Miami Book Fair International, promoting my book How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons—a book that will change your life and a really great gift idea at only $9.99. They put me up in the Hyatt Regency, which, as it happens, was the setting for the...
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Nov.13.2009
Last night I attended a combined benefit for Glide Memorial Church and celebration of Cecil Williams’ forty-five years of leadership there. Glide serves people who need a helping hand by providing over 750,000 free meals a year, mental and health care, women's programs, after-school programs,...
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Nov.10.2009
Canada is invading the United States. But before I get to that, I need to tell you about Leo MacDonald, Head Sales Honcho for HarperCanada, and his career in law enforcement. When he was very young and foolish Leo flew to Hay River to see a woman who had been or was his girlfriend. Hay River is...
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Nov.05.2009
I am in Montreal for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion on behalf of my company, HarperOne (represent!). Montreal is a beautiful city, but the people in Canada are delusional, stubbornly holding onto the old myth that this is an independent nation. The people in Montreal go even...
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Nov.02.2009
Halloween is a national holiday here in San Francisco. This isn’t simply because people get to dress in sexy costumes borrowed from their wives’ closets or purchased at one of our local leather emporiums. Yes, it is a time when people get to come out of their shell and walk around the streets of a...
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Oct.30.2009
It has been a very, very long time (four months) since I wrote about the assault of the pigeons on the West coast of this great land, and in particular on the light well outside my kitchen, and no doubt many of you have wondered about the status of this epic battle for the soul of America. My sense...
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Oct.27.2009
People often ask me why I wrote How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons. This is a tough question, because there were several reasons:
I wanted to make billions of dollars
I wanted to be more famous than Paris Hilton
I wanted to stop the human race from destroying itself
Now that I have...
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Oct.25.2009
On a beautiful day in San Francisco 16-year-old Laura Ruth Barry had no trouble defending her San Francisco Parkside tennis crown, beating fellow American Sam Barry (who is, in an extraordinary coincidence, her father) 6-1 and 6-2. The match was actually more lopsided than the score would indicate...
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Oct.22.2009
I was doing some laundry this morning before work when it hit me. However, before I explain that statement let me just say that I am a big admirer of the renowned Buddhist teacher Jack Kornfield, not least because he is the father of Uma Thurman. No wait, that’s Richard Gere. Still, I am a big...
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Oct.19.2009
All you need is love, says the song. But that’s ridiculous. You need a room, too, and a harmonica. What were the Beatles thinking?
Still, I miss those times when pop artists wrote songs that meant something, and none more so than Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, a quintessentially American band led...
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Oct.16.2009
I used to be a Presbyterian minister. That was back in the days before they found a cure (rim shot). But seriously, folks, take my Bible—please!
I kid. Well, not about being a Presbyterian minister. I really was one, in Omaha, Nebraska, serving a little church called Florence Presbyterian. When I...
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Oct.14.2009
Tonight I will be attending and participating in the Litquake event honoring Amy Tan at San Francisco’s Herbst Theater. If you don’t know what Litquake is, you should check it out. Litquake makes San Francisco cooler than New York. In fact, Litquake makes San Francisco cooler than San Francisco....
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Oct.09.2009
We, the harmonica players of the world, have worked long and hard to bring our reputation up out of the gutter and onto the sidewalk where it belongs. Historically we have not been granted our place in the orchestra of life; people would not hire us for any but the most menial tasks; the police...
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Oct.08.2009
In the July 29 edition of The Daily Sam we discussed the delicate etiquette question of what to do about sharing the armrest when you are stuck in the middle seat on an airplane (answer: become rich enough to fly first class). This post prompted an important question from author Brian Moreland, who...
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Oct.04.2009
Kathi, my daughter Laura, and I are staying here in New York City with the Jewish Don of New York Restaurateurs, Kathi’s cousin Alice Cutler. Going out to eat with Alice is serious business. For instance, when we eat dinner at her family style Italian restaurant Carmine’s enough food is placed on...
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About Sam
Sam Barry is the author of How to Play the Harmonica: and Other Life Lessons and coauthored Write That Book Already! The Tough Love You Need to Get Published Now with his late wife, the author and founder of the Rock Bottom Remainders, Kathi Kamen Goldmark....
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