JUST BEAR WITH ME…

…maintains that each of us has powerful and interesting stories to tell.

WHAT IS Just Bear With Me…?

This is where I tell stories with data, often using tales from my own life to provide context. My story-telling style – call it “annotated meandering” – inspired this site’s name. Just bear with me…I do get to the point.

The cover photograph shows the Vale Rio Diner, which used to sit at the intersection of Routes 23 and 113 in Phoenixville, PA. It appears prominently here.

This is also where I promote and sell my books, starting with Interrogating Memory: Film Noir Spurs a Deep Dive Into My Family History…and My Own.

Here is what some folks I respect say about it:

David Mayhew: “Greatly have I enjoyed your new book, which kept me glued! It all flows well. Film noir is a real fetching theme! What an expert and connoisseur you are!”

Larry Harnisch: “It’s a good one!”

Morgan Richter: “I am enjoying it immensely.”

I also promote other brilliant storytellers, because we creators need to support each other.

Matt Baume makes entertaining, intelligent and thought-provoking videos about queer representation in mass media. Here is his excellent recent book. Similarly, Jarred Corona pours out his heart in every queer-themed video he produces, doing so with insight and integrity.

If you grew up in the 1980s, you will love Richter‘s When Gen X Ruled the Multiplex series. It is like chatting with an old friend about movies.

Robin Bailes of Dark Corner Reviews mixes in-depth analyses of classic horror films with short streaming reviews and hysterical looks at truly awful horror films. Yes, he went here.

Polyphonic and Trash Theory make the best videos about the history of pop music I have ever seen.

The struggles of Matt Murray of Corn Pone Flicks with the absurd and arcane copyright rules of YouTube are legendary. His David Lynch analysis videos rank among the best.

Nick Hodges carefully separates fact from fiction in historical movies on his HistoryBuffs channel, while the folks at Kurzgezagt tell beautiful animated stories about, well, everything.

FuzzCulture makes insightful videos about the modern world’s active suppresion of creativity.

While the husband and wife team in The House of Tabula (formerly The Cinema Cartography) can be a bit pretentious, few are as passionate and knowledgeable about film as an art form. Shoutouts also to Be Kind Rewind, Cinema Cities, Thomas Flight and Patrick H Willems.

Do I agree with everything these creators say? Of course not. But they do the hard work to back up their insights and opinions, and I applaud and respect that.

THE BLOG

Since my YouTube channel is my only social media outlet, when I have something brief to say, I will put it here. Older entries may be found here.

December 15, 2025: Assuming the initial news reports are correct, Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer Reiner were stabbed to death at their Brentwood, CA home yesterday afternoon. These are devastating losses, and my heart goes out to their loved ones.

While I did not watch All in the Family as a child, despite my father loving the show, I was well aware that someone named “Rob Reiner” played Michael “Meathead” Stivic. I knew that he was the liberal counterpoint to his conservative father-in-law Archie Bunker. And I later learned his father Carl was a comedy legend.

My true introduction to Rob Reiner, though, came in the spring of 1985. My then-girlfriend had just seen a new movie called The Sure Thing, directed by Reiner, and she saw some of me in John Cusack’s college freshman Walter “Gib” Gibson. She watched it again with me, and this charming, highly-quotable updating of It Happened One Night quickly became one of my favorite films. To this day, I say things like, “Spontaneity has its time and its place,” “I have a credit card. You have a credit card. Oh, my dad told me specifically I can only use it in case of an emergency. Well, maybe one will come up,” “He doesn’t even know that Cassiopeia was the mother of Andromeda,” “You’re failing English. That’s like, your mother tongue and stuff” and “I was married once. Boy am I glad she’s dead.”

Around this time, I also watched This Is Spinal Tap, Reiner’s 1984 directorial debut. While much of its dry humor was lost on me at first, rewatches have shown me how brilliant and funny it is. And then there is The Princess Bride (1987), the one Reiner-directed film we have shared with our daughters…so far.

These are the three Reiner-directed films I have seen multiple times. I have also seen Stand By Me (1986), When Harry Met Sally (1989) and The American President (1995) one time each. At some point, I expect I will finally watch A Few Good Men (1992). Misery (1990), not so much.

Reiner had a string of seven films from 1984 to 1992 that average 7.7 on IMDb, ranging between a respectable 7.0 (The Sure Thing) and a laudable 8.1 (Stand By Me). This astonishing run of excellence speaks to what a deft filmmaker Reiner was. His movies were entertaining yet substantive, both serious and funny, and filled with dialogue befitting the son of a gifted comedy writer.

In recent years, Reiner was best known as a liberal activist. He routinely appeared on MSNBC in 2016, for example, to warn against the dangers of electing Donald Trump. Simply put, Rob Reiner was a social and cultural force of nature with a commendable legacy. His voice of moral clarity will be deeply missed.

Rest in peace, Mr. and Mrs. Reiner.

November 11, 2025: Below is what I wrote on Disqus about eight Senate Democrats voting Yes on a new Continuing Resolution – the beginning of the end of the longest federal government shutdown in American history.

The Democrats stayed unified long enough to crush the off-year elections, and that is all that actually matters – because the shutdown will be forgotten by Thanksgiving.

Democrats also succeeded in putting healthcare costs front and center to the point where Trump is publicly – and stupidly – calling for the repeal of Obamacare. “Repeal and replace” is one of the biggest reasons the GOP lost 41 House seats in 2018.

That is what Republicans won yesterday, as they blindly follow Pied Piper Trump to their doom in 2026. (Teagan is correct about the anti-reality bubble in which the GOP now lives, and that makes it almost impossible to reach common ground.) Health care costs, like inflation generally, resonate with voters in a way “saving democracy” and “Trump is a corrupt criminal” simply do not.

And when the enhanced ACA subsidies actually expire in January, all hell will break loose, even in North Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Alaska, Texas, Iowa and Florida. Just in time for the new CR to expire and Democrats to dig in once again – but with no risk to SNAP or holiday travel.

Oh, and that supposed Democratic rage last night and this morning? Mostly theatre and a chance to blow off steam after 40 intense days. But any Democrat who is angry at Schumer for “caving” needs to explain how holding out longer, while SNAP benefits go unpaid and holiday flights are cancelled, would have led to a different result, given growing GOP intransigence. You cannot negotiate with deliberate ignorance.

Did you notice that exactly the right number of Democratic Senators defected to get to 60? No more, no less. And nobody up in 2026 voted Yes. Schumer is a very good Leader, as we saw in 2021 and 2022, so I suspect he orchestrated no more defections than minimally necessary to achieve what was becoming inevitable. (I may be wrong on this, but something felt off about his and Sanders’ floor speeches.)

Most of the commentary in the press, though, is sadly and predictably wrong, showing just how far political punditry has fallen. Too many mouths and keyboards talking too quickly and with too little thought, reaching for the same tired “Democrats in disarray” tropes.

It will take some time before we realize just how much the GOP got outmaneuvered here.

BOOK WRITING UPDATES

[As of April 2025] Rather than revise Interrogating Memory (“IM”), I intend to write two new books – essentially forming an IM trilogy. The first, which draws from the first four chapters of IM, is The West Philadelphia Story: An Immigrant Jewish Journey (“TWPS”). TWPS focuses entirely on my Jewish ancestors, from their late-19th century migrations from the Pale of Settlement through my private adoption in 1966. It is another love letter to Philadelphia and my Jewish heritage, reminding us of the vital role immigrants played – and continue to play – in the economic and social well-being of the United States. The title riffs on the play and film The Philadelphia Story, which my mother, born Elaine Kohn in 1938, thought reflected life on the other side of nearby City Avenue.

I thought that once I rearranged Chapter 2 (Tragedy By the Oakford Bridge), I would have completed a full first draft of TWPS. However, I keep uncovering new information, pushing such a draft further into the future.

The second book, still in the planning stages, will have a title something like Diners and Other Idiosyncracies (“DOI”). The key theme of DOI will be the need to live own’s one life in one’s own way, while still behaving like a responsible adult. Starting with the history of my genetic families, it builds upon the last five chapters of IM. Rather than being strictly chronological, however, each chapter will explores a specific theme: identity, popular culture, mental health, solitary night driving, diners and other family restaurants, critical thinking, etc.

With a little luck and a lot of persistence, I will find a literary agent for these and all subsequent books.

WHO AM I?

Click here to learn about Matt (aka Dr. Noir).

WHAT ELSE WILL YOU FIND HERE?

The Noir of Who: Classic Film Noir’s Imprint on the Resurrected Doctor Who

Disease Testing Worksheet

WHAT DO I ASK FROM READERS?

Please continue to bear with me, while inviting others to do the same. I am grateful to everyone who clicks “Like” and comments in a respectful way. It truly is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.

And if you enjoy what you read here, please consider making a donation. Simply select a “quantity” of $1 payments equal to the amount you wish to donate. For example, to make a $5 donation to Just Bear With Me, you would select “5” under “Quantity.” I adopted this Rube Goldberg method because Stripe stopped processing payments to Just Bear With Me on October 23, 2024 for…reasons.

Thank you again to everyone who visits this website! I value every single view.

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