Category: History

Ranking every Charlie Chan film

If what I have concluded from my intrepid detective work is correct, I watched my first Charlie Chan movie, Dead Men Tell (directed by Harry Lachman, 1941), starting at 8 pm on July 25, 1976 on Philadelphia’s now-defunct Channel 48. As you can see, it was the first film in a double feature with a … Continue reading Ranking every Charlie Chan film →

Interrogating memories of childhood fires

I have settled upon a term (and possibly a book title) for what I describe doing here, here and here. The term is “interrogating memory.” As I write this book (tentative title: Interrogating Memory: Film Noir Spurs a Deep Dive Into My Family History...and My Own), I have spent a great deal of time trying … Continue reading Interrogating memories of childhood fires →

Querying the impossible, just for fun

As I research and write this book, I am taking a deep dive into all manner of personal documents, family books and photographs. So many photographs… Here is a photograph I rediscovered that shows my father holding me in his right arm while cupping the chin of my older sister Mindy with his left hand. … Continue reading Querying the impossible, just for fun →

Making personal connections, 60 years later

When I launched this blog last December, I intended it to be a place to disseminate all of the quantitative data analyses I was conducting for my own amusement. Such a repository, I theorized, would force me to write up the results of these analyses into short articles. Short, at least, by peer-reviewed journal standards. … Continue reading Making personal connections, 60 years later →

July 2017 Odds and Ends

My wife tells me that she gets annoyed when blogs she follows take too much time between posts. For mostly travel-related reasons, I have not been able to post a full article since July 6, and I will not be able to do so again for another week at least. Since my preference is never … Continue reading July 2017 Odds and Ends →

Writers Write, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Career Changes

What I can’t remember is whether my first exhortation to join the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) arrived in the mail before—or after—my 50th birthday in September 2016. What I do remember (because they are still neatly piled next to the printer, just a few inches to the left of my computer screen as … Continue reading Writers Write, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Career Changes →

We are not our resumes. Nor should we be.

When I enrolled at Yale University in September 1984, I was undecided between majoring in mathematics or political science. That decision was made much easier by my less-than-stellar performance in Math 230, then a required freshman math course. Beyond the objective difficult of the class, there are other reasons why I did not do as … Continue reading We are not our resumes. Nor should we be. →

Two distinct restaurants. Two different conversations. One unanswered question.

I spent many nights in the liberated summer between high school graduation and enrolling at Yale taking long solo drives, exploring outer suburban Philadelphia. One night, meandering along Route 23, I saw this at the intersection with Route 113N in Phoenixville: My idea of heaven was, and remains, a 24-hour diner, though less so when … Continue reading Two distinct restaurants. Two different conversations. One unanswered question. →

Film Noir: A Personal Journey

[Eds. note: This essay was the inspiration for my 2022 book Interrogating Memory: Film Noir Spurs a Deep Dive Into My Family History...and My Own. If you like what you read below, I think you will love the book.] A few years ago, I turned 48. On a lark, I decided to celebrate (in part) … Continue reading Film Noir: A Personal Journey →