NonLinear

Thursday, October 23, 2014

My Few Minutes With Andy Rooney

and

The High Cost of Plastic Surgery

Remember Andy Rooney, the 60 Minutes writer who broadcast often witty but cutting essays from his oversized, walnut desk? His segment was called “A Few Minutes With Andy Rooney.”

Several years ago, I was working on an assignment for an undergraduate class, Writing Opinion: Editorials and Columns. The assignment was to write an under 800-word column using humor.

One night, during a long bout with writer's block, Andy Rooney showed up in my bedroom. Really. It was 2:00 a.m., and I heard this voice ask me in its distinctive nasal tone, “Do you ever wonder why we (man/woman) need to personify things?"..... (Continue Reading My Few Minutes With Andy Rooney in Other Writing).

The Pier

The Pier

My parents grew up in Maine during the depression. My mother was from Saco; my father was from Biddeford. The Saco River separates the two.

While I don’t know where my parents met, I do know they were in high school—my mother at Thornton Academy in Saco, my father at Biddeford High School. I like to think they met at a school dance or at the dances held in the summer at the Pier in nearby Old Orchard Beach, where Big Bands such as Tommy Dorsey, Frank Sinatra, and Duke Ellington frequently performed. . . . (Continue reading "The Pier" in Other Writing).

Look within, then look to Montana:

Since July the Portland Press Herald’s (PPH) has been reporting on the University of Southern Maine (USM) Interim President David Flanagan’s strategic plan for the future of USM. PPH’s Maine Voices, Another View and the editorial board’s Our View have been fora for an assortment of opinions from USM faculty, students, administrators, and alum. Two salient questions have emerged and remain unanswered: What is USM’s identity? And, what does a streamlined USM look like? The answers may come from within as well as from without. ......(Continue Reading, "Look Within, Then Look to Montana" in Other Writing)