America’s Muscle Car Religion (And What You Do With a $3 Million Mustang)
Muscle cars weren’t just vehicles—they were rolling confidence. But what happens when the dream car becomes a $3M museum piece?
Nostalgia
The Good Old Days Illusion
Nostalgia is an editor, not a historian—and it can turn your present into a courtroom. “The good old days.” Say it out loud and you can feel the temperature change in the room. Somebody smiles. Somebody sighs. Somebody starts naming the year like it was a golden age: ’78, ’92, ’05—pick your flavor. But here’s … Read more
The Fall and Rise of the American Shopping Mall
From teenage hangout and pop-culture shrine to hollowed-out ghost box—and maybe, just maybe, the comeback story nobody saw coming. There was a time when “going out” didn’t mean refreshing an app.It meant getting dropped at the mall with a crumpled twenty in your pocket, a food court tray in your hands, and hours to kill … Read more
📖 My Satirical Bible: MAD Magazine
For more than sixty years I’ve kept a subscription alive to a magazine I once had to hide from my parents. Back then, MAD Magazine was “too adult” for kids — too subversive, too smart-alecky, too dangerous. Which of course made it irresistible. I smuggled it home like contraband, tucked it under my mattress like … Read more
🎪 What Time Is It, Kids? It’s Howdy Doody Time!
Every now and then, a memory sneaks up and makes me laugh. The other day, when I tossed off the phrase “the peanut gallery” in a rant, it reminded me that I once sat in the original Peanut Gallery. Not in metaphor, not in a history book — in real life. That’s right: my Cub … Read more
For the Marines: Uncle Jack, the Pueblo, and a Night Out of ITR
Some guys are influenced by rock stars. Some by coaches. Me? I was influenced by a Marine — my uncle Jack Rice. Jack wasn’t just any Marine. He was a WWII combat correspondent, a writer, and a man connected to the higher-ups in the Corps. But more than that, he was like a father to … Read more
Beatlemania in the Rain: Busch Stadium, 1966
I was just a junior in high school in 1966 when I scored two tickets to see the Beatles at Busch Stadium. Not because I was rich, not because I camped out in line — but because I had press credentials from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. My uncle, a revered staff feature writer, wanted my … Read more
American Pie (Fights): A Short Field Guide to Flying Pastry
No, not the overplayed 1971 song. We’re talking pies in the face — from the Three Stooges and Laurel & Hardy to Soupy Sales and beyond. Who threw them? What were they made of? Did anyone get hurt? Grab a towel. What were “stage pies” actually made of? Short answer: whatever looked great on camera … Read more
Nostalgic Comedy: Remembering SNL’s Bold Sketches
SNL is still on the air, but for me the thrill is gone. I miss the days when Saturday night felt like sneaking out after curfew — when a sketch could knock you off the couch and keep you laughing into Sunday morning. I’m talking about the Coneheads (“Mass consumption!”). The Loud Family. The 747 … Read more
Claymation, Mr. Bill & Gumby: “Oh noooo!” And Other Joys
Two little piles of clay earned lifetime leases in my memory: Gumby and Mr. Bill. Different eras, same magic—stop-motion characters who made us laugh till we cried. What is “Claymation,” anyway? “Claymation” is a term popularized (and trademarked) by Will Vinton, whose studio helped bring clay stop-motion to the mainstream in the late ’70s and … Read more