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Day 607: The 3660-Mile Race
What’s the fun of owning a hotel if you can’t change history in some small but significant way? When Raymond Orteig bought the Lafayette Hotel on 4th Street in New York, he was pleased when it became...
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Day 617: Immaculate Conceptions, Part 1
One of the topics I almost never sprinkle my words upon is cars. Sure, I’ll admit to an ethereal arousal at the curves of a ’65 Corvette, and I melted into my seat a little the first time I...
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Day 620: This Court Is Now In Session… Now Kick Some Ass!
When I was young, there were no sassy, quick-witted judges on TV dispensing justice with a scalding tongue, a brash and almost audible fart of morality, and a slick delivery that prompts the gallery...
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Day 650: There Once Was A Law About Naming…
There once was a thought for a game: To write about laws about names. And just for a gimmick, To write it in lim’rick Though some will turn out rather lame. It’s been quite a while since I tried A...
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Day 670: Tricking And Treating And Singing And Eating
In a few hours I will be visited by a myriad of Captain Jack Sparrows and Spidermen, Walking Dead-types and three-and-a-half-foot Jedi. Some kids will get the good chocolate, while others will get the...
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Day 695: Would The Real Dmitri Please Stand Up?
It takes a curious glimmer of morning sun to inspire me to bitch-slap my daily tithe with the walloping sting of some Russian history. But a wonky story is a wonky story, and one of the most...
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Day 704: The Angel Of Budapest
After trudging through a kilograph of hatred, bigotry and anti-Semitism yesterday, my soul needs a purge, a forceful injection of positivity. While there is undoubtedly a trough of sludge and sentient...
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Day 722: Santa A-Go-Go
While shopping for a pair of Christmas socks for my personal cheese carver at the mall yesterday, I was overwhelmed by the straggling line of drooling children awaiting their turn on Santa’s lap. The...
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Day 875: Why History Is Missing Ten Days (Plus The Weird Story Of February 30)
One day in the mid-1570’s, a Calabrian doctor named Aloysius Lilius deduced precisely how grotesquely wrong our calendar was. We had spent centuries dragging along this defective Ancient Roman relic...
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Day 904: Acquiring A Taste For Acquired Tastes
Earlier today, someone suggested to me that I pen an article about surströmming, which is a northern Swedish delicacy. As with any food that is considered a delicacy of a very specific region, yet has...
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