Stone statues honoring the dead helped draw me to the University of North Carolina. Thomas Wolfe wrote unforgettably of his father the stonecutter in Look Homeward, Angel, a classic coming-of-age novel. After reading Angel, I knew I must go to Chapel Hill. Back in the 1960s when I was at “Pulpit Hill, as Wolfe called the university in […]
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2013? Bring it on. To hell with superstition!
Never mind fiscal cliffs, or the fact that the real danger isn’t a Mayan-style apocalypse but a nuclear one (with the Doomsday clock last set at five minutes to midnight). For more than a few of us, the big threat is the year ahead, 2013. Perhaps 85 percent of the world’s office buildings lack marked […]
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You can order a trade paperback of the The Solomon Scandals through re.reads BOOKS south of Alexandria, Virginia, Bridge Street Books in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. or your own neighborhood bookstore, or buy it via the publisher, Twilight Times Books. The novel is also available online in digital editions. List price of the 252-page paperback is $16.95 […]
Read MoreScandalous Halloween ostracism (G-rated animation)
"Jeffrey wasn’t sure why no one would hang around with him anymore. Maybe it was his new deodorant?" – Animals being dicks, via Court Merrigan. Here’s the full story—G-rated—via an animation. Oh, and please ignore the meaningless “Similar Posts” links below unless they’re of interest to you in your “random” mode. My cyber-elves must be […]
Read MoreWhitey Bulger: The mobster as an avid reader and history buff
“He would fit in well here.” – Chronicle of Higher Education commenter quoting a CNN report on just-captured mobster Whitey Bulger: “An ‘avid reader with an interest in history,’ Bulger was known to frequent libraries and historic sites, the FBI said. “ Whitey’s brother, William, aka “Billy,” spent years as a university president, not just […]
Read MoreOsama bin Laden’s death is a military triumph, all right—but how secure are we if dumbed-down U.S. high school students think ‘Al’ Qaeda is a person?
Almost to the day, 66 years ago, on April 28, 1045, Mussolini’s enemies shot him and kicked and spat on his body, and on April 30 of that same year, Hitler killed himself with a Walther PPK 7.65 mm pistol (right photo). Now it is 2011 and we’ve TWEPed and buried Osama bin Laden. A […]
Read MoreA few words on tech, ‘screening’ and e-text—and Danny Bloom (1949-2032?)
I date back to the Smith Corona days of newspapers, and I can fondly recall a group named something like the Anti All Digital Dialing League. I’ll not bow blindly to the gods of technology. Within the book industry, I’m rooting for the survival of paper books and especially of the small independent stores selling […]
Read MoreSubway etiquette and the social order: Are you a Left-Stepper, Right-Stepper or Parker?
Washington, D.C., the main setting of The Solomon Scandals, is like Hollywood or an Army base. It’s a city of hierarchies, both official and social. Read on and find out where you stand in the social order. You don’t have to live in D.C. to take the related poll in this post—one visitor has even […]
Read MoreMajor characters—from the real estate tycoon to the Spinoza-crazed reporter
Rebecca Kitiona-Fenton: Great-grandniece of Jonathan Stone, the narrator. Tireless student of “previrtual media,” the inky old paper kind. Jon Stone, the narrator: A reporter whose curiosity might kill his career and maybe him. Sees Washington as a white-collar factory town. Covered the Kent State massacre while working in a blue-collar town. A Jew raised in […]
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Enjoying the gritty depictions of Washington power players in the fabulous House of Cards series on Netflix? Then you might also check out The Solomon Scandals, which predates the Netflix program. Like so much of House, as well as the classic novel All the King’s Men, Scandals is about the conflict between friendship and duty. […]
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A free MP3 of the start of The Solomon Scandals—one hour of a total of about eight—is now downloadable for iPods or other players. Click here to get the audio file, which includes an introduction. Big thanks to librarian Tom Peters, the narrator, who is with Online Programming for All Libraries. If you’re blind or […]
Read MoreCharacters
Rebecca Kitiona-Fenton: Great-grandniece of Jonathan Stone, the narrator. Tireless student of “previrtual media,” the inky old paper kind. Jon Stone, the narrator: A reporter whose curiosity might kill his career and maybe him. Sees Washington as a white-collar factory town. Covered the Kent State massacre while working in a blue-collar town. A Jew raised in […]
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