Essays
1093 results
Page 91
Behind the Bicentennial, Part 3: Keep it simple
Courting the Park Service: A Bicentennial memoir (part 3)
As 1976 approached, the National Park Service wanted a Bicentennial program that would appeal to visitors in all 50 states. I found the answer in one of Ben Franklin's letters. And unlike my competitors, I kept things simple enough to please the most important audience: the Park Service staff in the field.
Essays
9 minute read
The spy who snatched Baryshnikov
I chose one path, he the other: A memoir of Mexico, circa 1975
Who was that distinguished gentleman who shared our hotel terrace overlooking the Pacific at Zihuatanejo? And what was a middle-class theatrical producer from Society Hill like me doing sharing a drink with him?
Essays
5 minute read
Mischief Night follies: A memoir
Scared silent on Mischief Night: A Halloween memoir, circa 1955
We were typical '50 suburban kids whose Halloween hijinks were more a product of tradition than any kind of malicious intent. Nevertheless, on Mischief Night we learned more than we cared to about adults.
Essays
6 minute read
Mystic Seaport: Is recreated history authentic?
Cheating history: Mystic Seaport airbrushes its past
The once decaying maritime and mill town of Mystic, Connecticut has reinvented itself as a tourist attraction: a thriving 1850s seaport chock-full of jolly shanty men and widows of clipper ship captains. Like Independence National Historic Park in Philadelphia, Mystic Seaport is best described as a “sweet cheat of history.”
Essays
4 minute read
How newspapers will survive
Who needs advertising? Or: How newspapers will survive
Are major local newspapers doomed in the age of electronic publishing? The futurist Tom Purdom recently argued that publishers always manage to make money off new developments. Here he offers five concrete thoughts on how they may do it. And if Tom can think of five, surely Rupert Murdoch can think of 50.
Essays
5 minute read
Fringe/LiveArts Festival post-mortem
Up with movement, down with moralism: Three trends at the Fringe/Live Arts festival
For one invigorating month, the Fringe/Live Arts Festival nudged commercial and community theaters out of the spotlight to remind Philadelphians of the awesome possibilities of experimental theater and dance. Still, in such a diverse set of artists, the works I saw tended to follow three trends, for better or for worse.
Essays
4 minute read
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Obama's basketball coolness
A rock star? No. A hoop star? Yes.
Above all, Obama's style is just cool— even by Marshall McLuhan's definitive conception— and it's clear that he developed a great deal of it on the basketball court. Which may explain how his health care address to Congress seduced an ordinarily apolitical basketball/jazz guy like me.
Essays
5 minute read
The Gosselins: An American travesty
Thank God I'm a city girl
Sometimes I wonder why I ever gave up country life for the big impersonal city. Then I think about the Gosselins of TV's reality show, “Jon & Kate Plus Eight,” and I remember. I never met the Gosselins, but I know them all too well.
Essays
3 minute read
Financial ingenuity in hard times
Making the best of our recession
In these economically trying times, ingenious bankers have found a new opportunity: life settlement insurance policies. If Al Capone were here, he could suggest a way to maximize their return on investment.
Essays
2 minute read
On the fringe of the Fringe Festival
On the fringe of the Fringe: More adventure than I bargained for
Philadelphia's Fringe Festival increasingly sends performers and audiences to remote neighborhoods they'd never visit otherwise. This sense of geographical discovery adds to the adventure. But sometimes you get too much adventure, as happened to me this year.
Essays
6 minute read