Essays
1091 results
Page 91
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
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
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My grandfather's long voyage home
One man's legacy: My grandfather's final voyage
After his wife died, the old man spent eight months recreating the two-masted Newfoundland fishing schooner of his youth. Then he sailed off, secure in the serene knowledge that his legacy was intact.
Essays
9 minute read
Puddles: A Philadelphia memoir (c. 1950)
For the love of a dog: (A Philadelphia memoir, c. 1950)
My childhood dog Puddles had a mind of his own, but he faithfully followed my disjointed relatives on their upwardly mobile climb from South Philly to West Philly to Overbrook Park. Did we do right by him?
