Old Jews Telling Jokes
Sunday, February 15th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »I'm usually not a fan of traditional jokes. No sooner have I been told about a priest walking into a bar or about an insect immured in a bowl of borscht than I feel slightly irritable and trapped, as if ...
Trouble Getting to the Gig
Saturday, February 14th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »En route to our mutual speaking engagment at the Los Angeles Public Library to discuss the peculiar charms of the elderly, Sandra Tsing Loh ran into some trouble. Namely, her eccentric, 88 year-old father, as you can read/hear here or ...
My Book Tour: The Award Show
Thursday, February 12th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »I'm just back from a seven-city bout of bookflogging and tabletop dancing. I've shown my ankles to smart and lively book lovers in NYC, Durham, Miami, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Columbus. I am a very, very grateful man. In ...
There Is A God
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »More reviews: Seattle Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Washington Blade, Denver Post, Hartford Courant.
Alford vs. Athill: A Literary Smackdown
Saturday, January 24th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »There's a terrific piece just published by Laura Miller on Salon.com that compares my new book with a memoir written by 91 year-old British editor Diana Athill.
What Have I Created?
Thursday, January 15th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »"Henry," you are no doubt wondering, "how is your mother handling the fact that, in the review of your new book in the current issue of Oprah magazine, she is described as 'a role model for the ages'?" Well, I can ...
I Am Not a Nutjob
Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »There's an article in this week's Newsweek about a new $2.7 million program at the University of Chicago that will be dedicated to Defining Wisdom (as the program is called.) The Chicago scholars are looking at some quite unusual sources ...
Silence Ruptured
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »Typically, the period just prior to a book's publication is one marked by a deafening silence--what authors and publishers call "the calm before the calm." So it's been especially lovely for this aficionado of calm to hear some rumbling about my ...
Elderism #36
Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »On Tuesday morning, an 88 year-old woman outside of Portland, Oregon was attacked by a naked intruder in her home. Recalling a news story in which a victim survived an attack by grabbing her assailant's testicles, the Portland woman did ...
Eartha-ism
Sunday, December 28th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »(Eartha Kitt, 1927-2008) "The best thing to do is wear a wig and be more or less sure it's going to stay."
