My eldest daughter (let’s call her MyED) turned nine yesterday. I know that MyED turned nine yesterday not only because I was at my wife’s side nine years ago yesterday when MyED was born, but because it is practically all anyone has heard from MyED, since…well, since her younger sister turned seven four months ago. … Continue reading How film noir made me appreciate my daughter’s birthday celebration even more
Author: Matthew Berger
I am a data geek, history researcher, writer and househusband with academic training in political science (BA, Yale; MA, Harvard), biostatistics (MA, Boston University) and epidemiology (PhD, BU). I published Interrogating Memory: Film Noir Spurs a Deep Dive Into My Family History...and My Own in 2022. As of July 2026, I seek a publisher for its completed follow-up, The West Philadelphia Story: An Immigrant Jewish Journey. I plan a third book on my idiosyncratic GenX life. My musical trinity is Genesis, Miles Davis and Stan Ridgway. A liberal Democrat, I know a healthy democracy demands cross-partisan cooperation. I grew up just outside Philadelphia, and I live just outside Boston, where my wife and children keep me happy, sane and grounded.
Revisiting my old baseball player metrics…
In the summer of 1994, I was pursuing a doctorate in government. Desperately procrastinating, I found myself building datasets of 1993 major league baseball player data. Funny that I never finished that doctorate… Another motivation was frustration with the letter-grade system then in use to determine compensation for major league baseball teams for the loss … Continue reading Revisiting my old baseball player metrics…
A (kinda sorta) brief epidemiology primer
As an epidemiologist (OK, as “a person with a doctorate in epidemiology,” which is totally the same thing), I expect that I will write future blog posts relating to epidemiologic research. In those posts, I will refer readers unfamiliar with epidemiologic concepts and methods to my “epidemiology primer” post. This is that post. ********** Epidemiology … Continue reading A (kinda sorta) brief epidemiology primer
Gerrymandering is a bigger problem for democracy than for Democrats
It is an article of faith among Democrats and some political commentators that a major barrier to Democrats retaking control of the House of Representative in 2018, or even in 2020, is Republican gerrymandering following the 2010 U.S. Census. Republicans, the narrative goes, used the governor’s mansions and state legislatures they controlled after the 2010 … Continue reading Gerrymandering is a bigger problem for democracy than for Democrats
Degree or not degree? That is (still) the Democrats question.
Democrat Hillary Clinton, despite winning a 2.1 percentage popular vote margin over Republican Donald Trump, lost the presidency in 2016 because she lost the combined 46 electoral votes (EV) from three states: Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Clinton lost these states by a combined 77,744 votes, and an average of 0.57 percentage points, based on data … Continue reading Degree or not degree? That is (still) the Democrats question.
Should Democrats look to the southeast and southwest?
In a previous post, I implied that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 losses in five states won by Barack Obama in 2012--Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Iowa—resulted from white voters without a college degree (14 percentage points less Democratic in 2016 than in 2012) averaging 44.4% of these states’ electorates, while white voters with a college degree … Continue reading Should Democrats look to the southeast and southwest?
A closer look at Hillary Clinton’s performance in five key states
In a previous post, I proposed a “three-election weighted relative Democratic margin” (3W-RDM) for each state and the District of Columbia (DC). The “RDM” is the arithmetic difference between each state’s voting margin (% Democratic - % Republican[1]) and the national margin in a given presidential election. I calculated every state’s average RDM over successive … Continue reading A closer look at Hillary Clinton’s performance in five key states
About those recent presidential approval polls…caveat emptor
During President Donald Trump’s recent combative press conference, he cited a new Rasmussen poll showing him at 55% approval. What the...? I thought. At first, I thought he had simply read the “disapprove” number as the “approve” number, because all of the presidential approval numbers I had been hearing (primarily from Gallup tracking polls) showed … Continue reading About those recent presidential approval polls…caveat emptor
The Democrats’ 2016 “blue wall” thesis
There was a great deal of talk during the 2016 presidential campaign about Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s “blue wall” in the Electoral College, with “blue” the color news organizations use to denote states won by Democrats. The basis of this talk was simple. In general, states tend to vote similarly for president over time; the … Continue reading The Democrats’ 2016 “blue wall” thesis
NOIR CITY 15: How Noir is “NOIR?”
My affiliation with the Film Noir Foundation (FNF) began with a “Henchman”-level donation in March 2010. I had learned about the FNF through Eddie Muller’s film noir DVD commentaries (Muller, the “Czar of Noir,” is President and Founder of the FNF), but it was not until I received my free t-shirt and NOIR CITY 8 … Continue reading NOIR CITY 15: How Noir is “NOIR?”
Just Bear With Me... 