Essays
1111 results
Page 73
Newt's open marriage, and mine
Scenes from an open marriage
Did the talk of Newt Gingrich's open marriage actually help him win the South Carolina primary? Maybe so. Many Americans cherish the same fantasy, as I can attest from personal experience.
Essays
3 minute read
Gingrich: The wrong question
What John King should have asked Newt Gingrich
Freshman journalism students are taught never to begin an interview with a question that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no.” The allegedly seasoned professional John King of CNN committed precisely that faux pas with Newt Gingrich.
Essays
2 minute read
When Jews ruled basketball
Once upon a time in the East
The all-Jewish Philadelphia Sphas, the outstanding basketball team from the 1920s to the end of World War II, attracted Jews and anti-Semites alike by flaunting the idea of a minority group battling “against the world.”
Essays
4 minute read
The kid's first challenge: A boxing memoir
If age only had the energy, and youth only had the experience
The kid impressed everyone at the boxing club with his moves and his mouth. But after all, this was only Wildwood, and he was only 19.
Essays
6 minute read
Lessons of a back yard
A (South Philly) child's garden of verses
In the tiny South Philadelphia back yard where I grew up, something very important was transpiring. Only nobody realized it, least of all me.
Essays
5 minute read
Who needs Christmas letters?
A small farewell to a fading institution: Why I still send Christmas letters
In the age of e-mail and Facebook, an annual Christmas letter seems a superfluous way to play catch-up with your friends. On the contrary, this fading institution provides a valuable assertion that real life persists beneath today's floating world of mass culture.
Essays
3 minute read
My locker room buddy, Kim Jong-il
Kim Jong-il, the ultimate competitor
I first met Kim Jong-il in 1992 on a weightlifting exchange program to North Korea, and we bonded immediately over our mutual addiction to sports of all sorts. Take it from me: This was no tyrant—this was the world's greatest sports competitor since Jim Thorpe.
Essays
2 minute read
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A few not unkind words about Kim Jong-il
The Kim Jong-il you never knew
North Korea's late leader was demonized in the West as a tyrant preoccupied with bombs and gulags. Yet away from his day job, this creative soul pursued other passions, as a prolific writer, filmmaker and critic.
Essays
2 minute read
Christopher Hitchens, right or wrong
The mystery and tragedy of Christopher Hitchens
My old friend Christopher Hitchens had an omnivorous mind and an insatiable need to speak it. He possessed tremendous courage as well. But inexplicably, he and I wound up on opposite sides of an implacable political divide.
Essays
3 minute read
My passion for boxing, R.I.P.
The square jungle, or: The day I lost my passion for boxing
In boxing, I believed as a kid, the best man won— no bad bounce of a baseball or football to undo him, no teammates to weigh him down. You came out nobly with your shield or borne upon it. One night at a police station cured me of my youthful illusions.
