My Biography – The Short Version
I'm a baby boomer, with a childhood in the fifties, my
adolescence in the sixties, my disillusionment in the seventies,
and my gradual decline in the eighties. This decade has mostly
been spent searching for that wonderful economy I read so
much about.
I was born in Brooklyn, but my parents left there for the
uncharted wilds of eastern Queens; still close enough to the
big city to have an accent, but with enough space to have a park
right outside my backyard in Rosedale, N.Y. I lived in that row
house for 25 years, going to high school and college by bus.
I went to Queens College, in Flushing. It was a damn
good school when I went there, although I spent most of my
time hanging out with my friends, not in class.Interestingly, even
though I'm 25 years and 3000 miles removed from there, my best
friends are guys I met in college.
Two of my college friends eventually went to Hollywood
and wrote for THE ODD COUPLE. How that happened is a fascinating
story, which I'm sure you would agree would be out of place here,
since that's their bio, not mine and nothing all that fascinating is
going to show up here. Eventually, I joined them, and wrote for
HAPPY DAYS.
I had some success as a writer here in Hollywood, writing for
HAPPY DAYS, TAXI, LAVERNE & SHIRLEY, DIFF'RENT STROKES,
and a bunch of other less successful TV shows. Gradually, I got older,
the work got less frequent, and life was not a bowl of cherries.
Which brings us to 1994, when I won on JEOPARDY! That
money kept me alive, and enabled me to buy my first computer,
which changed my life, leading me to the Internet. I ended up working
for an internet provider (unnamed here, since I no longer work there
and they would have to pay me to mention them), and spending most
of my waking hours on the web and internet chat.
These pages will eventually have a bunch of opinions on them,
under the Random Thoughts heading. I guess it's only fair to let you know
where I come from philosophically.
I am a lifelong Democrat, whether I qualify as a liberal depends on
what issue we're talking about. In sports, I root passionately for the New
York Mets. I love movies, mostly old ones, but I occasionally leave my
computer to see something new. I've seen 90 of the AFI top 100 films,
almost all of them in a theater. I like to watch TV, listen to rock 'n roll, and
settle in with Mozart. Beethoven's Ninth is the best piece of music ever,
Sinatra the best singer, Roy Lichtenstein is my favorite painter, ANIMAL
HOUSE makes me laugh hard whenever I see it, my favorite fiction writer
is Philip Roth, and my favorite non-fiction writer is Bill James. Babe Ruth
was the greatest player of all time but I'd give anything to see Willie Mays
run out a triple one more time.
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