My older brother Paul and I were winter babies. Paul was born on Christmas Day in 1956 and I followed him two years and 10 days later. As a result, we often suffered the indignity of a combined birthday party. In my brother’s case, there was the additional misery
Our stalwart columnist Steve Coronella would be grateful if moonlighting MDs stuck to their day jobs
Despite an increasing number of fully accredited Irish citizens with unusual surnames — such as Olympic badminton player Nhat Nguyen, world class sprinter Rhasidat Adeleke, and hip hop artist Denise Chaila — it’s a safe bet that any round-up of common family names here will produce the usual suspects: Murphy,
Over the past couple of weeks there’s been a familiar seasonal sighting around our Dublin house. The object in question usually appears when I’m stepping into the shower or getting ready for bed, and it’s a 100% reliable sign that summer and autumn have ended and colder
Since the Nobel Prize in Economics was established in the late 1960s, some notable – and at times controversial – names have scooped the annual honor, luminaries such as Milton Friedman, Joseph Stiglitz, and John Forbes Nash, the troubled math whiz portrayed by Russell Crowe to Oscar-winning effect in the 2001
I’m a big fan of historical coincidences, the more outlandish and unpublicized the better. For instance, there’s the curious alignment of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson – revolutionary colleagues, then bitter rivals, and finally friends – who died on the same day, July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of American
The trip began on a fretful note. Having risen at dawn to beat the morning rush hour around Boston, we left the Mass Turnpike at Westfield in search of a solid breakfast and some strong coffee. At the end of the exit ramp, Joe had assured Brian and me, there
DUBLIN – Few enough things in this life improve with age: the enchanting laughter of a significant other (if you’re lucky), fine wine and whiskey (so I’m told), and first-person accounts of past sporting achievements (three-letter man in high school? You bet!). In Ireland, however, senior citizen
Recently, the connection between us became a bit more personal after I read an old New York Times profile of Theroux and his family, which contained the precise address and an accompanying photo of his boyhood home. I knew I had to seek it out... Before I ever set out,
As baseball stories go — and they are legion in the annals of American literature, from Ring Lardner’s hilarious story “Alibi Ike” to Roger Kahn’s nostalgic memoir “The Boys of Summer” to Harry Stein’s overlooked “Hoopla” — this one might be hard to match. The tale begins in Slovakia
Nobody enjoys a day off work or values the past more than the Irish, so you’d think the Emerald Isle would be a bit more creative where its public holidays are concerned. As it is, the vast majority of them are religious in nature or designated, quite simply and
As Donald Trump is sworn in for a second time, spare a thought for the five U.S. presidents denied an inaugural address. On Jan. 20, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th U.S. president and thus become only the second commander-in-chief to serve non-
