Celebrating Community
My brother Jerry, who’d been battling Parkinson’s for the past six years, died last week at the age of 84. He leaves no heirs, no inheritance, no smartphone, and no debts. He lived and worked his entire life in Brooklyn, but there will be no street dedications in his honor. A proud member of Teamster’s Local 237, a weekly contributor […]
UFOs are much in the news lately, rebranded by the Pentagon as UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), but I learned all about them early in life, thanks to Hollywood…and a rather odd neighbor. In the Flatbush of my youth, a movie theater sat across the street from our house, The Farragut. On many a Saturday morning, equipped with a quarter for […]
My pal Vinny is writing up a storm about his early years, most of them spent at the foot of the rickety Carroll Street Bridge amidst a tight-knit community of proud Italian-American strivers. Some thrived, many didn’t. Mezza Mezza. More on that later. I first met Vinny in 1961 when we were both freshmen trying to avoid getting whacked by […]
I was manning the Insights Desk at the Star-Revue on a gray late afternoon when Howard, the politics guy, exploded. “Damn it, I was trying to send my story about George Santos to George Fiala but this iTypo spell checker emailed it to George Santos instead! And now Siri wants to know if I’m his new campaign treasurer!” “But Howard,” […]
On January 23rd, Mayor Eric Adams, frustrated by news outlets refusing to install his cronies as City Hall reporters, announced that from now on, gosh darn it, he is going to deliver the news directly to the people with all the technology he can muster. “It’s just not fair,” the Mayor explained, wandering off-script at a press conference called to […]
Yesterday I stood on a step ladder to change a ceiling floodlight. The packaging said my new LED light would last fifteen years if it was used 8 hours a day. Doing some quick math, I realized this floodlight would probably outlive me. I decided to install an old incandescent bulb instead. For the third time on the same day, […]
I’m not a big theater fan. I’d rather see a flick. No need to change out of flip-flops, plenty of legroom, no lines at the urinal, and somewhat affordable. On the other hand, my wife grew up in rural Illinois, but as a kid her parents took her to Broadway to see My Fair Lady. Thus was a theater buff […]
It was Junior year Physics class in St. Augustan Diocesan High School, in a Park Slope that had seen better days and would again someday but not in 1963. I had just written a novelty song about Nicholas Piccione, our math teacher, who I actually liked. The song sprang to life after I dozed off in his class while he […]
On October 29th, 2011, thunder-snow was heard in Central Park as up to six inches of snow fell across the City, the earliest heavy snow in our history. In retrospect, an eerie omen of what nature had in store exactly one year later. 2011 Oct 29 The Frankenstorm came ashore near Atlantic City on a Monday at 7:30 PM. Its […]
“Hot bird!” It was George again, bursting into the Star-Review newsroom. “Enright!” he boomed. “We need to get to the bottom of this faded ghost sign I just passed on Court Street. A lot of it’s washed out, but it says to ‘Eat Healthy.’ Was that even a thing years ago?” George showed me the picture he’d just snapped. Not […]