Magazines
Selections from the glossies.
The Boston Globe Magazine, Oct. 2, 2011
The Science of Laughter
In which an ill-conceived assignment attempts to wreck my funny bone. Read
New York Magazine, July 3, 2011
59 Minutes with Errol Morris
New York Magazine called and asked me to go with Errol Morris to the basement of his office in Cambridge and look through the boxes containing his failed movie ideas, which include, of course, one about Spontaneous Human Combustion. Naturally, I took the assignment. Read
Boston Magazine, November 2010
Arrested Development
The epic story of Don Chiofaro — the most talked-about developer in Boston, though he hasn’t built anything here in two decades — and his little fight with the mayor. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, Aug. 1, 2010
Dana White’s Billion-Dollar Baby
A surreal weekend in the very surreal life of Dana White, a Southie tough who built the UFC into the sport of the decade. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, April 25, 2010
The Pin Kings
Not too long ago, candlepin bowling was huge, the most-watched sport on Boston television. Then it wasn’t. Now five young Massachusetts guys, as good as any who ever picked up a ball, are trying to save their sport by reinventing it. Can they pull it off? Read
Boston Globe Magazine, Jan. 10, 2010
15 Million Minutes of Fame
Thirty years after the US hockey team’s Olympic miracle, Mike Eruzione is still talking about his game-winning goal like it’s his job. Because it is. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, Dec. 13, 2009
How to Make an Olympic Snowboarder
Start young. Sign up for the sport’s premier academy, located in Vermont. Pay $40,000 a year for tuition and board. Devote days and nights to the pursuit. Add guts. Expect glory. Read
Boston Magazine, December 2009
Dane Cook Could Use a Fucking Hug
In the past few years, Dane Cook has been savaged by a band of haters and forced to bury both his parents. Then his own brother was indicted this spring for siphoning $11 million from Cook’s bank account. Now, on the eve of a homecoming Garden show, he talks for the first time about being loathed, being betrayed, and—just maybe—being able to laugh about it all. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, Nov. 22, 2009
Retail Therapy
With the year’s biggest shopping day looming, MIT professor Dick Larson, a.k.a. “Dr. Queue,” talks about the science and psychology of waiting in line. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, June 21, 2009
Fears of a Clown
Comedian Bo Burnham, still only 18, is revisiting his high school days in his biggest career test yet. Can he break out and grow up at the same time? Read
Boston Magazine, June 2009
A Masshole in Full
If you grew up here, you know a Robbie Concannon: Tough. Funny. Big-hearted. Hard-partying. Frequently flirting with danger, or incarceration, or worse. But Robbie Concannon dodged the fate most guys like him meet. The unlikely tale of how the craziest kid from the neighborhood turned himself into a bona fide folk hero. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, February 1, 2009
Salted!
My new favorite Boston word reveals a lot about who we are. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, Dec. 14, 2008
Confessions of a Conflicted Smoker
The state’s smoking rate has dropped to an all-time low, and the list of places where it’s banned continues to grow. My cigarette habit has left me demonized, ostracized, and marginalized. What would it take for me to quit? Read
Boston Magazine, December 2008
The Old Man and the Monster
MIT’s Bob Rines has risked his reputation on a three-decade quest to solve one of the world’s great mysteries. A story of chasing skeletons at Loch Ness. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, Aug. 10, 2008
The Future of Crossing the Street
Boston drivers are bad, but Boston pedestrians might be worse. Now some very smart people think they’ve got the answers to help everyone play nice on our roads. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, March 9, 2008
Help!
When Brad Delp, the former lead singer of the band Boston, committed suicide, the members of his wildly popular Beatles cover band decided to play on without him. This is the story of their search for a new lead singer, and the truth that they didn’t want one. Read
Boston Globe Magazine, August 19, 2007
Bizarro World
That’s what my wife and I entered when we drove up to an arcade in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire, where she would attempt to break an official world record in the classic video game Tetris. Read