Posts by Gene Meyer
The 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.…
Read MoreWorld Capital Germania
Haunting echoes of the past. In his book Stay Alive: Berlin, 1939-1945, author Ian Buruma writes about Hitler’s grand plan to remake the city into the World Capital Germania. It…
Read MoreHail to the Passing Generation: R.I.P.
Recently, the comments on my Washington Post partums list-serv, which grew exponentially in February with the abrupt firing of up to 300 from the newsroom, have had two main themes:…
Read More“All the President’s Men” 50 years on
The New York Times recalls the film and era, and so do I. It’s ironic that a retrospective on the 50th anniversary of the Academy Award-winning film b”All the President’s…
Read MoreDecluttering Andre Previn
My mother Emma Lampert Meyer died in May 1998, just shy of 90. Part of her legacy was her, shall we say, archives. Which wound up at our house —…
Read MorePlay ball! Washington Post Update.
During the depths of the pandemic, there was one bright spot come spring. Baseball was back! Fans couldn’t actually attend games, but they could watch them on cable. The ballpark…
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