My grandmother turns 100 this month. Here’s a look back at her first century on this planet.
Mar
15
After three non-fiction books, his first novel.
Detroit — With Spring Training well underway, Detroit-based author Rodney Curtis has just released his latest book, Hope’s Diamond.
The novel is a fun, fantastical tale focused on baseball, Detroit, relationships and the funny things that happen when you toss a little mystical Hope into the mix.
Mar
12



Busking for money along London’s famed Portobello Road in Notting Hill, a man stands upside down in a bucket.
Avoiding a Parliament funk when visiting London with your family
These London Travel Tips were initially published in 2006
We heard it from friends, from family and from folks we hardly knew; “You’re so brave,” or “Aren’t you scared?” or even “Your kids won’t remember it.”
When we finally decided we’d saved enough money to take our kids to the British Isles, we heard every excuse not to go. We listened politely and even took some of the warnings to heart. But my wife and I wanted to give our daughters an amazing learning experience and we, ourselves, wanted to have fun in a foreign country.
Instead of gearing our trip towards only what we adults wanted to see and do, (like watching a live session of Parliament with all the jeering), we planned our journey around our kid’s needs.
Welcome to my list of favorite films from last year. I’ve been compiling these since back in the 1990s when I used to just email them to friends. Before that, I had actual face-to-face conversations about movies. Thank goodness those aren’t recorded. I remember once telling high school pals Danny Baron and Jeff Dorchen (director and co-writers, respectively, of the upcoming Brie Larson musical comedy Basmati Blues) that I really enjoyed Olivia Newton John’s terribly maligned Xanadu.
Jan
29
For years my wife and I have started humming the Downton Abbey theme song only to morph it, after the first few bars, into The X-Files opening.
Now that the two shows are on Sunday nights together (for a very limited run), I thought it was a good time to mashup their intros and put our music theory to the test.
You be the judge; the truth is out there!
Don’t hate me John Lunn (who wrote the Downton theme music), or Mark Snow (who penned the X-Files theme).
Dec
22
The Boston Globe has been publishing my New Hampshire memories.
Here’s the latest, featuring a much younger Bill Clinton.
Democratic candidate Bill Clinton speaks at the New Hampshire statehouse
in the early 1990s. This photograph hung in the White House for years,
according to then President Clinton’s secretary.
Back when my wife and I worked as photographers in New Hampshire, it was always fun photographing presidential candidates who swarmed the state. Bill Clinton was probably the most memorable. We met him many times, but three encounters stick out most in my mind.
Dec
01
Our camera crew happened upon a pack of extremely rare and elusive Arctic Wolfdogs in the Southern Michigan tundra.
Here’s my fun Boston Globe story about the time our Christmas card photo went horribly right.