Not-yet-published pieces, stories, essays, rants, and random strangenesses

—mainly so I could share a glass and perhaps a meal with one of my dearest friends I have never met. Bookseller, philosopher, writer (the...

The tango originated in the 19th century Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Montevideo, Uruguay, and spread to the rest of the world soon after...

In high school, a math teacher once asked us if we’d said “White Rabbit!” that morning. When we looked at him blankly, he explained that...

Will someone please tell me why in the world this song from the Broadway musical Hair should play over and over and over and over and...

Leave it to Tin Pan Alley to turn centuries of ethnic and religious struggles into a catchy ditty. This song, though copyrighted by Jimmy...

Just in case you missed it over on my other blog (which I think a lot of people did because it was sandwiched in between a couple of...

C’mon, don’t you wanna take a gander at my new song-a-day blog? Really, I think you’ll find it quite nifty. The first post is up and...

Blame Indigo Bunting. It’s all her fault. OK, you can blame it on Elvis Costello instead, if you want. He wrote, “Writing about music is...