Many summers ago I did something I’d always wanted to do. I made a pilgrimage to Gilmanton, New Hampshire, the final resting place of one of my favorite writers- Grace Metalious. The author of Peyton Place. Nowadays, most people barely…
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Remember when having a birthday was fun? When your parents selected a theme for your party and all your rotten little friends wore hats and had noisemakers and cheered as you blew out the candles on your cake? Well, now…
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I had the weirdest dream the other night. I was in a movie theater watching a film and suddenly the film broke. The frame jerked to a halt and the image caught fire, melting like a bubbling celluloid rose. Of…
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One of my many cockamamie jobs was once selling roses on the streets of New Orleans in the 1970s. I had a little cart on the corner of Iberville and Bourbon Street where I sold bouquets of ludicrously priced posies…
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The first stages of dating are always perilous. That awkward “getting to know you” period is constantly fraught with all sorts of dangers. So, what do you do to be more comfortable with your new companion? Go for a meal…
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I’m pretty ambivalent about “outing” actors in print. I guess I feel that a person’s sexual preference is their own damn business. But I have a friend who violently disagreed: “These aren’t people we’re talking about- they’re actors! These are…
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Yes, I’m a ghoul. I’ll admit it. I love spending time in cemeteries. I have ever since I was in my teens and used to ride my bicycle for hours to get to some out-of-the-way bone orchard in order to…
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Yes, I killed Lucille Ball. Not with a gun or anything. After all, she did die of a heart ailment. But I think in some way I contributed to the demise of the doyenne of American Comedy- that Mercurochrome-haired woman…
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When you look back at your life as if it was a movie, there are main characters, there’s a supporting cast, and there are plenty of unpaid extras. But there are also very special characters that crossed your path that…
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Watching the first season of David Simon’s terrific HBO series The Deuce, set amid the seedy, crime-ridden Times Square of the 70s, made me incredibly nostalgic. Yes, I’m one of the few who genuinely miss the scary old 42nd Street,…
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