profile

Mark Stricherz

PostsLinks
Featured Post

New Post: Putin's Grim Childhood Foretells Disaster Ahead

https://markstricherz.com/putins-grim-childhood-foretells-disaster-ahead/ Home » Putin’s Grim Childhood Foretells Disaster Ahead Putin’s Grim Childhood Foretells Disaster Ahead March 14, 2022 Once I had a friend from Russia who said her late father had been a KGB agent. Russian leader Vladimir Putin, too, had been a member of the Soviet Union’s secret police. Yet my friend despised “Putin” and vowed to remove him from office. The collapse of the Soviet Union had been a blessing for her and...

about 2 years ago • 4 min read

https://markstricherz.com/to-cure-writers-block-you-need-two-treatments/ For Writer’s Block, Take Two Treatments February 23, 2022 Writer’s block is a strange malady. A mental state of paralysis, the disorder is exclusive to writers; no one talks about lawyer’s or accountant’s or coal miner’s block. The root of writer’s block is organizational rather than romantic. Some writers imagine themselves as uniquely tortured souls, like Prometheus chained to a rock while an eagle devoured his liver...

about 2 years ago • 6 min read

https://markstricherz.com/did-ronan-farrow-miss-out-on-taking-down-nbc-news-sexualized-workplace-culture/ Did Ronan Farrow Miss Out on Taking Down NBC News? January 22, 2022 In my post on Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill last week, I made a mistake. The post described Mr. Farrow’s takedown of Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, which, by my lights at least, went into excessive detail. It should have also delved into Mr. Farrow’s expose of NBC News’s sexualized workplace culture. While Mr....

over 2 years ago • 3 min read

The Adult Amid the Hippies: Why You Should Read Joan Didion’s Early Essays Revised January 4, 2022 Early last fall, I read Slouching Toward Bethlehem and The White Album, the first two collections of essays of writer Joan Didion. As my emails to my friend Dan and jottings inside the books attest, I was impressed by not only their literary style but also their content. Here was an American original. Alas, on December 23, Ms. Didion died, at age 87. To anyone curious which of these justly...

over 2 years ago • 5 min read

Some facts are so astounding you do a double-take or find your mouth opened involuntarily. I reacted those ways while re-reading The Sting Man: Inside Abscam last week. To anyone unfamiliar with the Abscam scandal, the book’s premise is startling enough. From 1978 to 1980, convicted swindler Mel Weinberg worked with the FBI to nab seven members of Congress, among other officials, who accepted bribes from, conspired with, or extorted agents who posed as two Arab sheiks. (The one indelible...

over 2 years ago • 6 min read
Share this page