My Dad’s in Women’s Clothes
When a boy considers his dad, and compares him to the fathers of other boys, an element of emulation unavoidably creeps into his thinking. A song by The Smothers Brothers, who had the same father, […]
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.
In Life as in Baseball, it Pays to Play the Wild Card
It was getting late, so I turned out the lights and headed upstairs. As I walked down the hall, I thought I heard crying from the boys’ room, so I stuck my head inside. “What’s […]
Ask Mrs. Cheese
Miffed that a deli charged you extra to add a slice of Swiss to your ham-and-cheese? Angry that your mother called your new outfit “cheesy”? Ask Mrs. Cheese, they don’t call her a cheese-monger for […]
New England Braces for French Toast Avalanche as Storm Passes By
SEEKONK, Mass. For Bernadette Worson, a 34-year-old mother of two, the projected “megastorm” that was supposed to hit New England this weekend required an all-hands-on-deck response. “My father was snowed in during the blizzard of […]
Do I Hear an Alarm, or Is Someone Reciting Free Verse?
Evelyn Waugh gave Edith Sitwell a pocket air-raid siren, which she would set off when people asked her whether free verse is more truly poetic than rhymed. The Letters of Nancy Mitford & Evelyn […]
In Fight Against Ironic Detachment, Some Are Deserters
NATICK, Mass. It’s a drizzly Friday in this western suburb of Boston, but the weather hasn’t dampened the spirits of a thousand participants assembled here for a twenty-mile walk into the city. The problem is […]
The Sylvia Plath Foreclosure Sale
I grew up surrounded by females. My dad owned a women’s clothing store. Both of my sisters were girls, and my mom was a woman. We had two female cats whose names–Big Kitty and Baby […]
My Poetic Life Insurance Exam
“Do you think you have enough life insurance?” my wife asked with concern after watching another half hour’s worth of depressing news. “All those Star Wars tchotchkes!” “Why do you ask?” I asked, and […]
The Mata Hari of the Faculty Lounge
Federal agents are warning leaders at top universities to be on the lookout for foreign spies or potential terrorists trying to steal their research. The Boston Globe I was sitting in my office, trying to […]
New England Ends Suicide Watch as Patriots Win First Game
SAGAMORE, Mass. Richard “Richie” Guertin is a forlorn-looking figure as he sits in a police cruiser sipping a cup of coffee while Adele Smithers, a volunteer from a local suicide prevention charity, assures him he’s […]