To date I have covered my exploits as a reporter in various academic environments. The two final episodes involve my adventures on the regional and national scenes.
Some years ago an uncle wrote a weekly syndicated column entitled "The Bible On Broadway" for several newspapers in New Jersey. In this capacity he got complimentary tickets for Broadway shows several times a week. He often called me at work and invited me to join him. Over a period of several years, I got to see lots of Broadway shows, good and bad. I always enjoyed reading his columns and trying to figure out the biblical connections, especially since I had g religious instruction when I was growing up. On occasion I would suggest topics or biblical references which occurred to me and would sometimes see them mentioned in his reviews. Eventually his reviews were published as a book.
The reason this activity counts as my fourth reportorial experience was that on occasion the frequent trips into Manhattan and back to New Jersey at night made my uncle tired. One time he looked totally exhausted and faced an impending deadline for the paper. This happened to be a play that particularly resonated with me, so I offered to write the entire review that night and send it to him in time for publication. He was skeptical but, after listening to me enthusiastically propound a number of plausible biblical themes, he finally agreed. As it turned put, he liked my writing well enough -- although it would never approach his level of erudition. Thereafter, we increasingly became collaborators, or so I liked to think. From time to time, I got to write his column or at least contribute to it. IQt was always under his byline, but I couldn't care less. This was a lot of fun for years : he got assistance on occasion and I got to be with him and have the pleasure of seeing my writing syndicated.
I leave the bible on Broadway with one hilarious episode. My uncle visited a new editor, carrying his "tear sheets" and seeking to expand his franchise. The editor said he was busy and had no time to read all of these columns, so He selected one as an example. My uncle noticed it was one of mine and that his fate now depended on me. The editor finished reading and said : " OK. This isn't so bad. I'll take you on ! "
The final chapter is this blog. Thanks to technology, it can be my most successful effort. I can write for billions of readers, self-publish the columns as a limited edition book, and even make a very low-budget movie about it. Some people think I look a little like the actor Richard Dreyfuss. Maybe he'd be interested in playing me.
Toucan
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Newspaperman-- Part I
I want you to know that you are not reading the column of some amateur.This is actually my fifth stint as a newspaper reporter.
My first endeavor was as editor in chief of my high school newspaper, The Oracle. This was a prestigious position for a four or six page glossy publication which published about once a month, depending on the amount of news since the last time and available time between homework and tests. It undoubtedly helped me get into a good college. There were 60 students in my graduating class.
In college I attained the rank of Features Editor and got a valuable card that had my name on it and in big bold letters the words "Working Press". To my delight, this card got me into events with other full-time working reporters and photographers. Two events stand out in my mind from working on my college paper-- one good and one bad. The good experience came from being able to interview the college president for hours. Normally, a busy and very distinguished person like that would have little time for a lowly undergraduate. But for an in- depth article which covered an entire page and dealt with his personal and professional life, I got an entire afternoon. The interview ended when all of my questions had been answered and following a house tour. It was a great experience for me, and he got a lovely article. I have always cherished the comments to me about it from one of my government professors -- a former Rhodes scholar and author of the definitive biography on Diderot-- that he knew the president very well, personally and professionally-- and that I had captured him very well. All of the foregoing remains in my mind not as a tribute to me, but rather an indication of the power of the press.
The second college experience seems amusing in retrospect, but did not seem so funny to me at the time. I thought I was a pretty good writer, but there was another classmate on the staff whose writing always blew me out of the water.I decided my "talent" wasn't as good as I thought. It was only years later, in introspect, that I came to realize that the staffer was none other than David Shipler, who went on to an outstanding career as a reporter for the New York Times, author of best selling books, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Then came my law school newspaper, to which I contributed articles occasionally. One article made a lasting impression on me. A group of us, who used to go jogging in the afternoon, decided to enter the Boston Marathon. I ran the marathon in a little under 4 hours and told everyone about it. Few people believed me until they saw an article about it in the school newspaper which included my name, whereupon everyone believed it and apologized to me for their error. What I didn't tell them was that I wrote the article for the paper at the editor's request but omitted my usual byline. This demonstrated to me how the power of seeing something in print influences people's belief in the truth of things.
My first endeavor was as editor in chief of my high school newspaper, The Oracle. This was a prestigious position for a four or six page glossy publication which published about once a month, depending on the amount of news since the last time and available time between homework and tests. It undoubtedly helped me get into a good college. There were 60 students in my graduating class.
In college I attained the rank of Features Editor and got a valuable card that had my name on it and in big bold letters the words "Working Press". To my delight, this card got me into events with other full-time working reporters and photographers. Two events stand out in my mind from working on my college paper-- one good and one bad. The good experience came from being able to interview the college president for hours. Normally, a busy and very distinguished person like that would have little time for a lowly undergraduate. But for an in- depth article which covered an entire page and dealt with his personal and professional life, I got an entire afternoon. The interview ended when all of my questions had been answered and following a house tour. It was a great experience for me, and he got a lovely article. I have always cherished the comments to me about it from one of my government professors -- a former Rhodes scholar and author of the definitive biography on Diderot-- that he knew the president very well, personally and professionally-- and that I had captured him very well. All of the foregoing remains in my mind not as a tribute to me, but rather an indication of the power of the press.
The second college experience seems amusing in retrospect, but did not seem so funny to me at the time. I thought I was a pretty good writer, but there was another classmate on the staff whose writing always blew me out of the water.I decided my "talent" wasn't as good as I thought. It was only years later, in introspect, that I came to realize that the staffer was none other than David Shipler, who went on to an outstanding career as a reporter for the New York Times, author of best selling books, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize.
Then came my law school newspaper, to which I contributed articles occasionally. One article made a lasting impression on me. A group of us, who used to go jogging in the afternoon, decided to enter the Boston Marathon. I ran the marathon in a little under 4 hours and told everyone about it. Few people believed me until they saw an article about it in the school newspaper which included my name, whereupon everyone believed it and apologized to me for their error. What I didn't tell them was that I wrote the article for the paper at the editor's request but omitted my usual byline. This demonstrated to me how the power of seeing something in print influences people's belief in the truth of things.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Chinese Food
All my life I have loved Chinese food. When Sen. Lindsay Graham (R,SC) asked Elena Kagan during her Supreme Court confirmation hearings where she was on the day the underwear bomber tried to blow up the airplane on Christmas Day, she laughed and said that like all Jews she was probably eating in a Chinese restaurant. That is how I feel.
My first job after finishing school was in Hawaii, which afforded me the opportunity to eat Chinese food to my heart's content. Last night, my wife and I had takeout Chinese from one of the fine Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood : a big container of egg drop soup and beef Szechuan style with white rice. While awaiting my order, I studied the menu and discovered that their everyday lunch specials were a big bargain-- soup, main dish with pork fried rice, and egg roll for only $6.25. You can be sure this information will not be lost in my brain, unlike other tasks I sometimes forget to do.
I was reading their menu for the first time because this particular restaurant was selected by our friend and neighbor for a New Year's Eve lunch for us after a music practice. This Hunan Chinese place was a departure from our regular spot, which got to know me so well that on the phone, just by my voice without identification, the order taker would ask how many house duck sauce and mustard sauce containers I wanted, since she knew that I didn't like the pre-packaged variety. I was at the new place because I was enchanted with their delicious egg drop soup and wanted to give this restaurant, highly rated by Yelpers, a try.
I have belabored my attachment to Chinese cuisine, without even touching upon my childhood when Chinese food graced our table for New Year's Eve without fail, for a reason. The reason is that there is a real problem with Chinese food,at least in its Americanized form. A recent article on the front page of the New York Times described the "epidemic" of obesity in America, and quoted the pastor of a church in Mississippi, the state with the greatest per-centage of obese people,saying his greatest enemy was the fast food Chinese buffet in town. I too love Chinese buffets, and the problem is they are high cholesterol, loaded with salt and fat and calories, and very unhealthy to eat.
If you visit Chinatown in lower Manhattan, you will see streets packed with people but hardly anyone, young or old, is fat. It takes some doing to find overweight people in this population or any other Asian group. The reason must be that their food is prepared better, without the ingredients in Americanized Chinese fast food. Indeed, when I had dinner at a Chinese friend's home in Hawaii, the food prepared by his mother was just as good or better but different -- kind of like how farm fresh everything tastes better than supermarket food. I once heard a young Chinese woman explaining to her girlfriends how her family would never eat Americanized Chinese fast food.
So this is a kind of plea -- I hope all Chinese cooks will wake up and serve Chinese food that we will not only love eating but will also be healthy. This would be a welcome contribution to curbing the fast food problem of all types in our country.
My first job after finishing school was in Hawaii, which afforded me the opportunity to eat Chinese food to my heart's content. Last night, my wife and I had takeout Chinese from one of the fine Chinese restaurants in our neighborhood : a big container of egg drop soup and beef Szechuan style with white rice. While awaiting my order, I studied the menu and discovered that their everyday lunch specials were a big bargain-- soup, main dish with pork fried rice, and egg roll for only $6.25. You can be sure this information will not be lost in my brain, unlike other tasks I sometimes forget to do.
I was reading their menu for the first time because this particular restaurant was selected by our friend and neighbor for a New Year's Eve lunch for us after a music practice. This Hunan Chinese place was a departure from our regular spot, which got to know me so well that on the phone, just by my voice without identification, the order taker would ask how many house duck sauce and mustard sauce containers I wanted, since she knew that I didn't like the pre-packaged variety. I was at the new place because I was enchanted with their delicious egg drop soup and wanted to give this restaurant, highly rated by Yelpers, a try.
I have belabored my attachment to Chinese cuisine, without even touching upon my childhood when Chinese food graced our table for New Year's Eve without fail, for a reason. The reason is that there is a real problem with Chinese food,at least in its Americanized form. A recent article on the front page of the New York Times described the "epidemic" of obesity in America, and quoted the pastor of a church in Mississippi, the state with the greatest per-centage of obese people,saying his greatest enemy was the fast food Chinese buffet in town. I too love Chinese buffets, and the problem is they are high cholesterol, loaded with salt and fat and calories, and very unhealthy to eat.
If you visit Chinatown in lower Manhattan, you will see streets packed with people but hardly anyone, young or old, is fat. It takes some doing to find overweight people in this population or any other Asian group. The reason must be that their food is prepared better, without the ingredients in Americanized Chinese fast food. Indeed, when I had dinner at a Chinese friend's home in Hawaii, the food prepared by his mother was just as good or better but different -- kind of like how farm fresh everything tastes better than supermarket food. I once heard a young Chinese woman explaining to her girlfriends how her family would never eat Americanized Chinese fast food.
So this is a kind of plea -- I hope all Chinese cooks will wake up and serve Chinese food that we will not only love eating but will also be healthy. This would be a welcome contribution to curbing the fast food problem of all types in our country.
In the Beginning.
You probably missed my first blog. That’s understandable and forgivable. No big deal. I mean, how many people caught God’s blog about the creation of the world? I don’t mean to be overly religious in this sensitive day and age, I just don’t want you to feel bad right from the beginning. I mean, this blog is for fun and thought.
I will try to be as incisive as others I have admired all my life : Woody Allen, Henry Kissinger, George Carlin, George Burns, Jesus,and Felix Rohatyn. Obviously, I can’t equal them,or you already would have heard of me.But in return for your attention, I will present on various topics : people, religion, politics, fine arts,and the problems of daily living (ADLs).
My advantages over these famous people are two-fold: I am anonymous and don’t have to worry about public repurcussions. Second, I speak like those people historians always wonder about— E.g., what did the ordinary Greeks think about Pericles and the cost of building the Parthenon? Or what did the serfs really think about living in a castle during the Middle Ages?
This is a wonderful liberating experience for me. I feel like the NY Times has finally seen the light and hired me as a columnist. True, I am not being paid and may not have thousands of readers. But this is in print—sort of— and with a little bit of Walter Mitty imagination, I’m in business! What an opportunity!
I will try to be as incisive as others I have admired all my life : Woody Allen, Henry Kissinger, George Carlin, George Burns, Jesus,and Felix Rohatyn. Obviously, I can’t equal them,or you already would have heard of me.But in return for your attention, I will present on various topics : people, religion, politics, fine arts,and the problems of daily living (ADLs).
My advantages over these famous people are two-fold: I am anonymous and don’t have to worry about public repurcussions. Second, I speak like those people historians always wonder about— E.g., what did the ordinary Greeks think about Pericles and the cost of building the Parthenon? Or what did the serfs really think about living in a castle during the Middle Ages?
This is a wonderful liberating experience for me. I feel like the NY Times has finally seen the light and hired me as a columnist. True, I am not being paid and may not have thousands of readers. But this is in print—sort of— and with a little bit of Walter Mitty imagination, I’m in business! What an opportunity!
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