Surprised by the Fed
The Fed Should Surprise Us. Headline, The Wall Street Journal I have come to the headquarters of The Federal Reserve System, the nation’s central bank, on a mission: from everything I’ve seen and heard on […]
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, will be published by Oxford University Press in September.
All Hail Our Robot Vasectomy Nurse Mistresses
I share something with my two male cats other than a fondness for weekend naps; we have all been neutered. “We know how you feel.” I went under the knife a decade and a […]
As Chintz Spreads, More Husbands Go Feral
TURTLE CREEK, Indiana. Five months ago, Beth Ovashinsky had everything going for her; a new home, her loving husband Larry, and 8-year-old twin daughters Belinda and Melinda. “I guess I didn’t know how good I […]
Grocery Shopping With Virginia Woolf
I like Vita Sackville-West and being with her and the splendor–she shines in the grocer’s shop . . . with a candle-lit radiance. Virginia Woolf, quoted in “A Madwoman and Her Nurse,” Cynthia Ozick […]
Undercover With the Weird Religious Divorce Rules Unit
An undercover agent posed as an Orthodox Jewish woman in a sting operation that led to the arrest of two rabbis for kidnapping men who refused to grant divorces to their wives. The New York Times […]
My Dark Horse Run for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award
It’s hard out there–to coin a phrase–for a guy who’d like to quit his day job and write. You look for any advantage you can get. A few weeks ago I read about a guy […]
As Boston Re-Opens, Some Fear “New Affability” Will Cause Virus Surge
BOSTON. It’s shortly after 7 a.m. as the first mass transit train of the morning rolls into South Station, and debarking commuters hit the platform for what will be for many their first full day […]
Nuns Help Those for Whom Drag Race Life is the Pits
SAN TOSTITO, California. To an outsider, this sun-baked town in central California has two distinctive features–its isolation deep within the Oye Como Valley, and its flatness. “God looked down on this little patch of earth,” […]
Your Maternal Buttinsky Advisor
Have a mom who criticizes your cake-decorating skills? Wondering why she always praises your brother’s water-skiing and not yours? Ask Your Maternal Buttinsky Advisor, she’s full of vindictive ideas! Dear Maternal Buttinsky Advisor: I am […]
Return of the SWAT Team Cat
A calico cat that was the mascot of the Boston Police Department’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team disappeared in November and did not return until January. The Boston Globe We were […]