Posts by Gene Meyer
Dolly Parton, R.I.P.
Books are an essential part of her enduring legacy. I saw her in person once. It was Tennessee night at National Harbor, just below Washington, and I was working on…
Read MoreWelcome Home, Pvt. Hennessey!
Lest We Forget It was just a short pitstop at a Stewart’s convenience store in the small Upstate New York town of Boonville. But there was something that caught my…
Read More“Fill Your House With Stacks of Books”
I’m thrilled to share my first story published in “The Overlook,” a reader-supported, nonprofit news outlet in the Mid-Hudson Valley. Wherein I profile Chris Evers, the 85-year old proprietor of…
Read MoreThe Previn Connection to “The Swedish Connection”
We recently watched “The Swedish Connection,” a film on Netflix that hit home. The film tells the story of a long forgotten Swedish diplomat who cleared the way for a…
Read MoreThe Morbidity Mania
Old Algorithm’s Got Me Having a senior moment? Remember when that was a joke? Harmless enough but a bit of foreshadowing your future. It…
Read MoreThe Rooftops of New York
Can you top this? In the 1933 film “King Kong,” the giant gorilla climbed to the top of the new Empire State Building, then at 1,250 feet the world’s tallest.…
Read MoreThe Big Birthday Bust
So I was in downtown DC the other day, emerging from the Gallery Place Metro station. There were half a dozen National Guardsmen standing around looking at their phones and…
Read MoreBlack History Month 2019 — Juneteenth 2026
Note: This was published in Newsday more than seven years ago with the headline “When race does not matter.” I’m not sure I love the headline, because in fact race…
Read MoreThe Jackson Heights Saga Continues
“The future of New York is Queens.” — Gary Shteyngart, New York Times, Dec. 28, 2025 While still living in Jackson Heights, Queens, at age five, I came down with…
Read More“The Last Square Class”
Go, Bulldogs! We were, said Robert Canosa, the assistant principal and chief disciplinarian, “the last square class.” We were the Roslyn High School, Long Island, New York, Class of 1960.…
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