Making the Plan for the "Mancation" to Amsterdam
Winter in New York City: it’s only about 36 degrees outside and a winter storm is set to strike on Friday. That should be fun; cozy and snowed in on Green Lane. Today we will pay a visit to Brigitta Koon at the Netherlands Tourism Board here in the city […]
The Naked
The play was a hilarious send up of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps. There were four actors here, four who handled at least 20 parts. One continuous site gag was a guy shaking hands with himself, flipping between sides, one with a tan coat then one with a black coat. […]
The Readers Sound Off on Our Trip to Iran
An article about our recent trip to Iran appeared yesterday in Salt Lake City’s Deseret News. So far more than 20 readers have weighed in with a fascinating array of points of view. Reader comments: 8-day Iran tour delighted Y. student ravash 12:48 a.m. Dec. 15, 2008 Bravo. God bless […]
In 1993, He Predicted Newspaper Classifieds Would Die
I’m reading early morning reports about the death of newspapers. First I popped onto a column by Jeff Jarvis, who is known for savaging former employers like the now bankrupt Tribune company. Jarvis was a founding editor of the fattest magazine on the newsrack: Entertainment Weekly, which itself is struggling […]
The Routines Are Familiar, Just Like the Rituals
I am heading down to the city this week. On Wednesday I’ll board a Peter Pan coach and head into Manhattan. As I have done for the past 25 years or more, I’ll meet my mother Valerie Hartshorne at a fancy restaurant and afterwords we will proceed to a theater. […]
December Sunday, Time to Prepare
I think a good alarm system would send you a text message if anything bad was going on at your house. Cindy is shopping for such a system, and it occurs to me that this would be a very quick way of reaching almost anybody. I have read about systems […]
The Hapless Leafs Decide to Get Tough
I never realized that the Toronto Maple Leafs were Canada’s most storied and richest sports team. I learned this while I read the WSJ at Cindy’s last night, after a night at Spoleto with the lovely pair of Cindy and Stephanie Jones. It’s funny because despite having the most fans, […]
The Young Paste-up Artist and His New Daughter: 1981
One of the fun things about owning a cafe is the people who come in, popping back into your life after long absences. One such fellow is photographer Robert Tobey, with whom I worked in my callow youth as a paste up artist at the Valley Advocate in Amherst. Tobey […]