Visiting Philadelphia: …very few answers

The first indication of the nature of my recent trip to Philadelphia was the absence of SD’s and my favorite server at the Westgate Pub my first night there (the night before a Thor-like thunderbolt short-circuited the air conditioning in my hotel room for four nights). As I detailed here, I shoehorned seeking answers to … Continue reading Visiting Philadelphia: …very few answers →

Moving serendipity

The moving van arrives Tuesday morning. Friday afternoon (yesterday as I write this) we finally drove two packed cars to the storage unit we rented when we relocated my mother-in-law to the Boston area five years ago (the stuff one can accumulate over more than four decades in a three-story Georgetown brownstone is mind-boggling). Our … Continue reading Moving serendipity →

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: An unexpectedly Super ending!

This is the ninth—and last—in a series of posts chronicling my recent trip to NOIR CITY 16 in San Francisco. I base these posts on 102 pages of notes in my little black Moleskine notebook, 254 photographs and my memory (supplemented as necessary). In this post, the festival ends in a Super way, and I … Continue reading NOIR CITY 16: An unexpectedly Super ending! →

Interrogating memories of the LAST Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl

Sometimes, when my psychotherapist and I are interrogating (my) memories, she brings up the Freudian concept of “screen memories,” in which we essentially replace a traumatic childhood memory with a more innocuous memory. In her telling, a screen memory could be any set of memories which have become jumbled together, with the affect from an … Continue reading Interrogating memories of the LAST Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl →

Phollowing the Philadelphia Phillies is phun again

I trace my love of the Philadelphia Phillies to my father. As a 15-year-old fan, he convinced members of the 1950 National League Champion “Whiz Kid” Phillies to sign his autograph book. Phillies games always seemed to be playing on the car radio when I was young, the mellifluous baritone of Harry Kalas and the … Continue reading Phollowing the Philadelphia Phillies is phun again →

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 →

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 Hall of Fame case for Jamie Moyer

My wife taught at a Boston-area private school for a number of years. One morning in 2007, she was enjoying a complimentary breakfast in the teacher’s lounge with three or four other teachers, when someone commented on the latest major league baseball steroid scandal featured in that day’s Boston Globe. Eventually, another teacher asked the … Continue reading A Hall of Fame case for Jamie Moyer →