As Restaurants Re-Open, Some Turn to Feedbags
BROOKLINE, Mass. It’s been almost a year since Lisa Pepperidge went out to dinner, and the pent-up energy to “put on nice clothes and get out of the kitchen,” as she put it, broke last […]
Author: Con Chapman
I'm a Boston-area writer, author of The Year of the Gerbil, a history of the 1978 Red Sox-Yankees pennant race, and 50 books of humor including "Scooter & Skipper Blow Things Up!" by HumorOutcasts Press. My work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Christian Science Monitor and The Boston Globe among print outlets. "Rabbit's Blues," my biography of Johnny Hodges, Duke Ellington's long-time alto sax player, was published by Oxford University Press in 2019, and was named Book of the Year by Hot Club de France. My young adult novel, "Kimiko Chou, Girl Samurai," was published by Atmosphere Press in 2021.
My Dream Date With Queen Amina of Zazzau
Queen Amina of Zazzau, now the province of Zaria in modern Nigeria, took a new lover in each town she conquered, then had the men beheaded in the morning when she left. Woman Warriors: An […]
“Father Bill,” Minister to Notary Publics, Dead at 78
MONTPELIER, Vermont. Father William Subba, fondly known as “Father Bill” to the hundreds he ministered to over the course of his fifty-two year career, was buried here yesterday in a ceremony marked by rubber stamps, […]
As Firms Remain Closed, Some Pine for Lost Office Crushes
WALTHAM, Mass. Ask Stephanie di Corso what she liked about her job as a receptionist at Pilgrim Property Development before it was closed under a state-wide order as a non-essential business, and you won’t have […]
Your Bug Advisor
Spring is here and the bugs are back! There are between six and ten million species of insects, but only one for humans. Hardly seems like a fair fight, which is why you need Your Bug Advisor on […]
Joy in New England as Spring May Fall on a Weekend
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. Spring is the season that inspires poets and causes young men’s thoughts to turn to love, but in New England it is part rumor and part myth. “There is no spring here,” a […]
Me and My Small Talker
It was Thursday night, which meant the countdown had begun for a polite Saturday dinner party at which I’ll have to make small talk, an activity I’m ill-equipped to engage in by both nature and nurture. “What […]
Guy DuBois, First Absurdist Account, Dead at 76
WORCESTER, Mass. Guy DuBois, the creative accountant who first brought the principles of Absurdism to the traditionally-staid realm of double-entry bookkeeping, died yesterday after a brief illness at the Fagerquist Senior Living Center here. He […]
My Night With the All-College Girl Revue
“Wow–pretty wild about Bill Gates,” I said to my wife. “What?” “Apparently his wife is divorcing him because of his wild lifestyle.” “Wild like how?” “Nude swimming parties with strippers. Apparently he’s been a total […]
For One Writing Coach, “Wranting” Doesn’t Cut It
SOMERVILLE, Mass. Maggie Turbek is a writing coach who learned the hard way the perils of caring too much. “I turned in a magazine article a day late because I wasted a whole Sunday on a nuclear […]