This painting haunts me. I find it beautiful and fascinating. And yet the subject matter – German Stuka dive bombers returning to Greece after a mission over Crete – is, to say the least, disturbing. I have always felt that the Nazis were the gold standard for evil, no matter how glamorously portrayed. The painting […]

You say “Buffalo” and I say “Millard Fillmore! Cookie Gilchrist! Goo Goo Dolls!” But recently I learned of another reason to shout: Gene LaVerne. A professional dancer, he turned to photography when a back injury took him off the stage. Gene LaVerne with Jean Harlow Gene LaVerne became the nation’s preeminent photographer of exotic dancers, […]

Given my love for all things postal, you’d think I’d have heard of “porte timbres” a long time ago. But no. Porte timbres (French for “stamp holders”) were frames with a space in the center for a postage stamp. Also known as “stamp collars” or “advertising collars,” the frames carried patriotic, social, commercial or charitable […]

This past week, we noticed the presence of mice in our basement. In one way, I like mice. They’re cute, plump and furry. I understand why they want to join us. It’s cold outside and there’s not much food. Inside, it’s warm and we have lots of food. They’re just trying to get along. But […]

Three stories about abortion: My parents listened to the news on the radio during breakfast and read the morning paper. I remember hearing reports of women found dead in hotel rooms, and reading about them, victims of botched abortions. Abortion was illegal, hence a lucrative sideline for organized crime, for doctors who had lost their […]

The AR-15 is made to kill people, many people in a short period of time. It is not made for hunting game, target shooting or home defense. There are guns specifically designed for those tasks. I grew up with guns. In the bedroom I shared with my brother, there was a gun rack over his […]

“It was recognized even in the eighteen-sixties that collectors had to contend with not only forgeries of government-issued postage stamps but also stamps whose validity existed only in the imagination of their producers.”– Cinderella Stamps (1970) by L.N. and M. Williams I love mail, mail art, the post office, postage stamps, rubber stamps. All of […]

Where to begin. A friend sent me a copy of Goat Mountain by David Vann, and it dredged up all kinds of memories. My grandfathers were both hunters, as was my father, but I never went hunting with them, and I thank God for that. I was too weak, too small, too much like a […]

Two stories about the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic from my family: My mother’s mother, Cora Braun, was 30 years old in September of 1918 when the Spanish Flu appeared in Buffalo, New York. Her most vivid memory was of a day when she watched from her front window as the funeral processions began at dawn […]