It’s hard to say which made me feel more violated – having my car stolen or having my computer hijacked by an insidious virus.

The car-theft happened over two decades ago, and time has a way of softening the edges and making offenses seem less egregious. (Just look at how many Americans seem to have forgotten the outrage we all felt on September 11, 2001.)

It was a Sunday afternoon in 1985, and my friend Lisa J. and I had driven into Boston to attend a WBCN-sponsored road race being held in the Fenway area. Lisa J. had once worked as a writer for DJ Charles Laquidara and she knew the ‘BCN crowd.

I parked my white, 1972 Chevy Impala 400 Sedan on a side street off Lansdowne St., and we walked a few blocks to the event. The walk was a good warm-up for me as I had decided to enter a 3K side “race” for walkers. My prize for finishing 10th in the race walk event was a crappy U2 vinyl album. I never played it. I still don’t get the appeal of U2.
Continue reading ‘Information Highway Robbery’

Sometimes the hardest part of being a newspaper columnist is figuring out what to write about. Once a topic presents itself, I seldom have a problem producing the requisite number of publishable words before deadline. But as John Dewey said, “There is all the difference in the world between having something to say and having to say something.”

I once asked former Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory which he found easier – writing a column or writing a news story. He said that writing a news story was by far easier.

I agree.

With a news story, at least you have a ready-made event or a set of facts to work with. With a column, you have to come up with the whole premise yourself. And that takes work.
Continue reading ‘Breaking the Ice’