The veils of memory tend to obscure the beginnings of things, but for the solitary soul with any imagination, there is no end to the variety of possible endings to a story. The reason or reasons I ended up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1990 are subject to the whims of marriage and family, the conveniences of geography and transportation, and advances in technology, mixed with the fear of the unknown. Replaying in my mind all the scenarios for my departure from Harrisburg nearly three decades later leaves me certain now, from the moment I arrived in Pennsylvania’s capital city from New York, that I would be leaving.
Pennsylvania
The Secrets of Miss Olympia Tilley-Blandin
Since tweendom, they shared secrets with each other to which no one else was privy. The Tilley-Blandin Sisters Secret File. Every year, over pizza at John’s of Bleecker Street, they shared a single new secret, ranked it compared to previous years’ secrets, wrote them down, and put them in a safe place.
Art and Public Nudity
One of my most rewarding experiences as a junior book editor in the 1980's was working with the late English journalist Colin Simpson, who I recall had a reputation as somewhat of a scoundrel and troublemaker – the perfect combination for any ambitious editor chasing the best-seller list.
Featured
Novak Agonistes: A Remembrance of Things Past
It was interesting to learn on New Year's Day in 2016 about a mobile phone app called 1 Second Everyday, which was invented by Cesar Kuriyama. This app allows you to record a 1-second video each day and create a mashup along a timeline: a week, a month, a season, or, in my case, the entire year of 2016.
Third Ed Novak 