In my two previous posts, I began to explain my choices for the Facebook book challenge I completed May 16 (seven covers over seven days, no explanations), addressing my interest in crime, both fictional and real. I now turn away from crime (fictional and otherwise) and toward something far more sinister and horrifying. Politics. ********** … Continue reading Why I chose…Dynamics of the Party System
Category: History
Why I chose…Murder, Inc.
In my last post, I described the Facebook seven-day book challenge I completed May 16 (seven covers over seven days, no explanations). Freed from the challenge rules governing, however, I now explain my choices. In this post, I explore my fascination with true crime by discussing… Fictional crime has fascinated me since I was seven … Continue reading Why I chose…Murder, Inc.
Why I chose…The Big Knockover
I am not generally a fan of Facebook “challenges.” Nonetheless, when my friend Rebecca nominated me for the seven-day book challenge, I accepted. The rules were simple: on each of seven consecutive days, post a book cover, with no explanations, while also nominating another person for the challenge. On May 16, 2018, I completed the … Continue reading Why I chose…The Big Knockover
The Butterfly (ballot) Effect
It is a curious fact that on November 10, 2002, just two days after the United Nations (UN) Security Council passed Resolution 144, requiring Iraq to readmit UN weapons inspectors and comply with prior Security Council resolutions, former Vermont governor Howard Dean, M.D. gave the keynote address at the 2002 Annual Meeting and Expo of … Continue reading The Butterfly (ballot) Effect
Two worlds collided…
(with apologies to INXS). One of the unanticipated pleasures of writing my book is that I get to spend hours reading old newspapers. This is an amateur historian’s idea of heaven. Last August, I introduced a key character in my book: a powerful Philadelphia attorney named Herman M. Modell. Modell, who knew my father and … Continue reading Two worlds collided…
What if Dewey HAD defeated Truman…
This is one of the most iconic photographs in American history. Easy as it is now to mock the editors of the Chicago Tribune for jumping the gun on the 1948 presidential election, they were merely anticipating what Americans thought was going to happen: incumbent Democratic president Harry S Truman (who had become president in … Continue reading What if Dewey HAD defeated Truman…
Questions of identity
Since my previous post (March 31), I have been singularly focused (perhaps even obsessed) with on-line detective work: constructing family trees for my genetic family. As I explained last July, I was adopted in utero; my “legal” parents, David Louis and Elaine Berger, brought me home to Havertown, PA when I was four days old. … Continue reading Questions of identity
A Musical Mosaic
When I enrolled at Yale in the fall of 1984, I was undecided between majoring in political science or mathematics. A less-than-stellar experience in Math 230—required for freshman mathematics major—quickly decided me: political science, it would be. Luckily, two courses I took sophomore year taught by Professor Edward Tufte—Data Analysis for Politics and Policy and … Continue reading A Musical Mosaic
The Smithereens: Film Noir where you least expect it
I have previously described how I manipulate mix tape/CD/iTunes playlist data to generate lists of favorite tracks (a term I prefer to “songs”), albums and artists, organized by year, musical “genre,” etc. Being a meticulous (obsessive, even) organizer of data, no sooner had I started using my current version of iTunes in January 2013 (when … Continue reading The Smithereens: Film Noir where you least expect it
NOIR CITY 16: A photographic epilogue
In this follow-up to the chronicling of my recent trip to NOIR CITY 16 in San Francisco, I take considerable artistic license with photographs of San Francisco. To read the entire series, please start here (or with this related, more analytic post). It is an open question whether I would have grown so inordinately fond of … Continue reading NOIR CITY 16: A photographic epilogue
Just Bear With Me... 