January 2019
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Judging by its almost-allegorical title, Man of the West claims, or seems to claim, that Link Jones, its conflicted protagonist, represents something fundamental and archetypical about the American western experience. And indeed it does, if Mr. Jones, played by rugged stalwart Gary Cooper, is to be judged by his exceedingly laconic manner, his resourcefulness, his fundamental…
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On East 9th Street, and probably in other parts of Brooklyn, a manhole cover was called a "sewer." I don't know why. Ignorance, perhaps. As far as I know, manhole covers provided entrance to electrical work and other utilities, not to watercourses. Openings to the sewers that were located along the channel next to the…
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Let's say I was thirteen, so this event would have occurred on or our about 1952. I had brought my Raleigh 3-speed to the Cortelyou Road bicycle repair shop which was between East 13th and East 14th. The shop was run by a small, fair, heavily-accented German man who was perhaps 50 years old. He…
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I've reached the age when, neuroscience claims, the "wisdom centers" of the brain (the anterior cingulate and ventromedial prefrontal cortices) are supposed to leap into action. Do they? Tell truth, I don't know. Have I, without awareness or drama, metamorphosed from a jejune larva, dull as dishwater, into a butterfly of wisdom? When did it…
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In 1975, Leo Durocher wrote an as-told-to autobiography called Nice Guys Finish Last. I read every word of it, but I got to tell you, it's not a good book. It's a piece of self-justifying pro-Durocher propaganda. It's argumentative, hyperbolic, unreliable. Durocher was an irascible man: he got into fights with sportswriters, players, umpires, owners,…
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1655 Walnut Street, Boulder, Colorado. On the second floor, just to the left (as you look from the street) of the main entrance. It's not a handsome building, in my opinion, but the condos are clean and comfortable and new. I've been here since 2009 and plan to stay. Going to go out feet first,…
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Many years ago, sometime during the previous millennium, I was taken to an African game park — elephants, rhinoceroses, giraffes, and lions (the hippos were AWOL). It was astonishing to see these huge beasts. I didn't realize at the time that it was semi-miraculous that these creatures had survived to our day, even in a…
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From 1965 to 1969, from my 26th to 30th year, I lived at 215 West 91 Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, first in a 4 room apartment on the 6th floor and later in a 5 room apartment on the 5th floor. Two babies came home to this place. It's called a…
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Dear Talia, Oliver, Ella, Lola, Luke, Caleb, and Asher: Here's a picture of your great grandmother, Anne Krull Goss (1912-2009) with her siblings. Anne is the pretty young blonde woman, second from the left. She's the oldest. The picture was taken during the World War II years, '42 or '43. On great grandma's right is…
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From 1973 until 2009, this was the place. My longest stay in one location and the childhood home of my children. The house had good bones, as they say, when we arrived and was well worth the $46,500 that we paid for it. But the innards had been remodeled into oblivion. Green shag carpet covering…