Diary: Looking for a good biography of Eugene V. Debs? This isn’t it
This being an election year — and accordingly, utterly infuriating on a daily basis for the MAGA stupidity it embodies — I thought it...
Daphne Phelps and “A House in Sicily”
The struggle to learn the language was wearing, when study necessarily took place after long days of dealing with endless kind visitors who felt...
Take me, I’m existentially yours (or, crisis—what crisis?)
This essay appeared as an "On the Avenues" column on January 1, 2019. For those reading from afar, be aware that in metro Louisville,...
“When the Doves Disappeared,” a novel by Sofi Oksanen
The novel is called When the Doves Disappeared, written by the Finnish/Estonian author Sofi Oksanen. The English translation was released in 2015. The publisher...
Books: “The Cold War from the Margins” in Bulgaria
In May I read a good book about a little-known aspect of the Cold War.
The Cold War from the Margins: A Small Socialist State...
Books: “Bowling for Communism” in Leipzig
Leipzig was among the East German cities to be visited in 1989 during my August working holiday in the GDR, but the group excursion...
Roger’s year in books and reading, 2021
When it comes to books, I’ve never seriously attempted to rank a year’s reading in terms of "best of" or the like. To be...
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From 2009: “Senior editor graces inner pages of Today’s Woman magazine, world gasps”
Egads.
I'd completely forgotten about this photo op and interview, fortunately recorded at NA Confidential (August 5, 2009). Noting that for the moment I cannot...
1970s-era albums for December, 2025
Updated December 10, 2025
Nostalgia regularly afflicts me, and as a result, I endeavor to keep it at arm’s length.
But 2025 has been such a...
John Lennon: Life (and death) is what happens to you while you’re busy making...
(An essay originally published at NA Confidential in 2005, and often repeated. It has been lightly edited.)
On the morning of December 9, 1980, I...
