The Militia and Me

A few weeks ago, after nine members of the Hutaree militia were arrested in and around Ann Arbor, an editor at The Times asked me to follow up my series on the election by writing an op-ed piece about militia activities in Michigan. He wanted to know if the average...

Walk Right In

This is the only known photo of my family’s hotel, other than the photo of the dining room I uploaded to this blog last year. Amazing that in all the years we owned Pollack’s, no one thought to take a picture. Then again, everyone was too busy working...

Wallant Award

I hope you will pardon my immodesty, but I am going to post the text of the speech given by Mark Shechner, one of the judges of the Edward Lewis Wallant Award, which I won this year for IN THE MOUTH. I read this whenever I get too depressed to sit down at the computer...

Auto Show

Marian took me to the auto show in Detroit, just as the show was closing, and as we wandered the gigantic convention floor full of gleaming sports cars, adorable electric putt-putts, and trucks whose tires stood taller than my head, I couldn’t help but wonder...