Transmissions
A continuous signal on any and all frequencies about any number of topics. The aim is to be interesting and engaging, without ranting or screeching. If you’re looking for a glimpse of what’s percolating in one writer’s gray matter on any given day, you’ve come to the right place.
Lipstick Traces
A couple months ago I watched Ken Burns’ 2011 documentary series, Prohibition. As he does with all his subjects, Burns crafted an engaging and enlightening retrospective – not only an examination of Prohibition itself, but also the political and social climate of the...
Steel on Vinyl
I found Superman on the back of a Corn Flakes box. Okay, that’s not exactly true. Actually, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t know about Superman. My first exposure to the Man of Steel was the animated cartoons produced by Filmation Studios in the late 1960s...
All Around in the Dark
On this particular Independence Day at this particular moment in history, I’m thinking about The Grapes of Wrath, the 1939 novel by John Steinbeck. It’s the story of a Dust Bowl family from Oklahoma heading west on a roll of the dice, in search of a better life that...
America’s Mom
Veteran actress June Lockhart turns 100 this week, which frankly makes me feel kind of old myself. Born June 25, 1925, she got an early start and eventually compiled a resume that encompassed stage, screen and television over the course of almost nine (nine!) decades....
Honorable Menschen
I grew up Catholic, in a neighborhood with only one Jewish family that I can recall, so I didn’t have much exposure to Jewish culture or traditions until after college. But I did read a lot of comics during those early years, and I read a lot of books about the...
Signal Check
Welcome to the blog. This is the place where you’ll get random dispatches about…well, everything. Seriously, anything goes here. Maybe a status report on the latest project in my never-ending word pipeline. Or a few notes about an upcoming convention or book fair on...