Memories, wishes, lies, and a life telling stories — When I was in the fourth grade, we had a genius who lived in my closet and smelled strongly of garlic. He lived on the third floor, slept at odd hours of the day, and kept his mail in our cereal cabinet. …

A trip down memory lane, or Thirteenth Street as it was called back then — My apartment was one of four in a small three-story building on Thirteenth Street, between Locust and Walnut. This was Philadelphia in the 80s when the city was a lot sketchier than it is now. Today this is known as the heart of the Gayborhood, a festive collection of bars…

Remembering to engage and say yes as a means to a more rewarding existence — or at least a better story — I was in Los Angeles for a few weeks directing a commercial when Cliff, my producer, asked me if I wanted to go surfing in Malibu. This was definitely the type of thing one might expect to hear in La-La Land, along with “Have you ever done any acting?” and…

An unflinching portrait of writers and why they shouldn’t expect to be healthy, functioning adults — “A healthy person looks around and thinks, ‘It’s a wonderful world, full of wonderful things,’” notes comedian Paul F Tompkins. “Then there are those of us who think, ‘I want to be one of the wonderful things. I want people to be glad that I live on earth. …

The magic and mystery of the local bar, and why it attracts the storytellers among us — I miss hanging out in bars. The easy camaraderie of the patrons. The casual ambiance of a local watering hole. The almost banal reliability of regulars and staff. The familiar sounds of the jukebox and the smell of stale beer and cigarettes. It was a glorious time. It’s not something…

Far too many people seem overly eager to jump into conflicts they have no business in — In the middle of the 19th century, your average working man might only own one or two shirts, so in the event of a donnybrook, ballyhoo, or melee, they would remove their shirts before fighting to avoid damaging this valuable piece of clothing. Keep your shirt on was the idiomatic…

We’ve all been trained to believe that objectivity is the gold standard even though the opposite may be true — Throughout most of the 20th century — the second half of it, at least — Americans came to the collective understanding that proper journalism should be an exercise in objectivity, with its various actors and agents being unwilling, or even incapable, of taking sides, robotically reporting the facts, and nothing…

My relationship with pain and its effect on the creative process — I’ve always had a rather curious relationship with pain. I’m not masochistic or anything. I’m just not sure I process pain the same way as other people. It’s doubtful that I’m either exceptional or broken, but I have a hard time gauging my pain on a scale of 1–10. Either…

An indelible part of our past, we can’t seem to get past the nostalgia long enough to make it a practical concern — When I was a kid, the train nerd was a pretty standard character among my peers. I never saw the attraction, but I knew kids who had memorized all the various rail lines, what type of cargo any particular train might be carrying, and all sorts of arcane trivia related…