Before I could bring the stories down  to the printer — a 20 minute downtown subway trip from my high school — I had one final step left.  I needed to meet with Richard Klein, the High School of Music and Art’s usually fair-minded principal.  Without his approval,  all our words stood still.  I can’t remember the exact ritual — did he read the stories in front of me and then sign off?  Or did he call for me after he’d read everything and then set me on my way?  What I do remember is the time I was told that my editorial about Constance Cook and the expansion...

My taste for underdog campaigns came early.  You might remember my mentioning the O’Dwyer Senate race in “36 Days.” That’s when Paul O’Dwyer ran as an anti-war Democrat against the ever-popular three term Republican Senator, Jack Javits…  Historians will tell you that every headline revealed how badly we lost, but, talk to anyone who was there and you’ll hear how we sank with smiles on our faces.  And Al’s legend lives on, long after he lost to Carter Burden, who spent a good part of his Vanderbilt family fortune to win a dead-end primary.  Carter...

The call came at the end of the day from someone I’d interviewed at a world affairs conference, when I was still writing for Pacific Shipper.  My name must have been collecting dust in her Rolodex — and I could hear her desperation.  Could I possibly feed four visiting Indonesian journalists who were eager to experience a typical American family dinner? They’d eaten less than typical fare in top restaurants across the nation for a week, and now for their last dinner they wanted to see how Americans really ate.  After ignoring emphatic family advice, I decided to make them a very...

“Bring More” was my father’s nickname for my alma mater, which drained about $3400+ each year from our family’s savings.  Back in the early 70’s, that was a significant sum for a college education  —  four decades later, an updated version would ring true as:  “Bring Lots and Lots  More.”   I’m delighted to say, with graduation now a springtime away, our academic debt is settled, and this last lap is — well, I think of it as “free.” It’s a hard point to argue, but definitely a breezy time after That Long College...

So many years ago, long before CD’s went on sale, when not-yet-dinosaurs roamed across Humphreyville, as it was once known, we voted for our class song. Joni Mitchell’s classic has never lost its pull, and a day before my son heads back for his last semester, here it is again. The Circle Game by Joni Mitchell    Yesterday a child came out to wonder Caught a dragonfly inside a jar Fearful when the sky was full of thunder And tearful at the falling of a star Then the child moved ten times round the seasons Skated over ten clear frozen streams Words like when you’re older must...