misc.
Safe As Houses
When I was eleven, we moved to a new house. None of us kids wanted to move, because moving meant a whole new school, and we loved our old school. We also loved our old neighbourhood, which was comprised mainly of Catholic families, and thus jam-packed with kids. There were enough kids in just four [...]
Giving thanks.
This is the first year since I moved to London in 1989 that I haven’t celebrated Thanksgiving. Even when I lived in a teensy hovel in Deptford, we always cooked a turkey and invited all the foreigners we knew, and in more recent years it’s grown into a huge sit down extravaganza — with all [...]
Narcolepsy
I read in the paper today that Stephen Sondheim (him again) writes music lying on a sofa so that he can fall asleep when the going gets tricky. Which he says it does frequently. This made me feel better about falling asleep while trying to reread my manuscripts, which happens with depressing regularity. It doesn’t [...]
New York stories 1980-1989. All true.
1. I’m walking down Sixth Avenue around 55th street, and a guy comes up to me and says, “Excuse me, how do you get to Carnegie Hall?” I have waited all my life for this line. Flustered, I say, “Just up there, turn left, you’ll see it in front of you.” 2. I’m waiting for a [...]
I HATE Christmas.
Only part of this is because I am Jewish. I’m not wildly Jewish, after all, and not so Jewish that if I loved Christmas I would feel guilty about it. I love ham, for instance, and don’t feel guilty about that. Except that I admire pigs. So — guilty, yes. But not because the old [...]
True Stories Told Live
I blame Kerry Shale. He and I were both invited to do a special Mark Twain Night Waves on Radio 3 a few months ago, and I made the mistake of accepting a ride home in his chic little two seater Mercedes. Think “spider” and “web.” “A couple of friends and I started a storytelling [...]
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