Personal

Family: Sonja Boet-Whitaker ● Jesse Fischer

My family does cool things! My partner Sonja is a transportation planner. My brother Jesse is a musician and coder.

Eulogies: Pete Soloway ● Florence Levine ● Milton Levine

There's no higher honor than speaking at someone's funeral and I've been glad to be able to speak at these three, for people I loved.

Campers' Week at Pinewoods: Pinewoods' Mapmakers Skit ● The Old Camp Store

I started going to Campers' Week at Pinewoods when I was ten and have gone almost every year since. It's a place where I've found a wonderful intergenerational community of folk music, dance, and bad jokes, as well as some of my most prized chosen family.

Dear Sports Fan: What is offside?

For several years starting in 2011, I wrote over a thousand posts on Dear Sports Fan which were viewed over a million times. Dear Sports Fan was my attempt to demystify the world of sports for people who did not undertand them but wanted to. It was, as my catch phrase went, "an advice column for people who live with people who live for sports."

History Projects:

When I lie in bed and dream up projects, they're almost always about history. Here are some I'm going to get to as soon as I win the lottery (I don't play) or retire.

Mixtapes: Wedding Cocktail Party

The art of the mixtape was introduced to me in middle school by my brother who made me mixtapes filled with choice morsels from his expanding taste in music of all genres. I've kept up the habit in the age of Spotify.

Rants and other Writing: Anti-Racism and the Folk Revival

While I'll never match the volume or vociferousness of my father's famous rants, I've written a few good ones, and even some non-ranting writing.

Favorite Quotes: Douglas Adams on Technology ● Robert Heinlein on Specialization● Shakespeare on Manhood● Sam Kellerman: Sports is Man's Joke on God ● Stout and Ransome: Instructions on How to Behave ● Bossidy and Charan: Execution ● Mark Twain: On Intellectual Work ● Leo P. Ribuffo: Accidental Historian

When I was a kid, I had a thin yellow hardcover filled with pithy quotes. I still remember my favorite limerick from the epigraphs section of that book, "There once was an old lady from Ryde, who ate some apples and died. The apples fermented inside the lamented, made cider insider her insides." Here are some of my favorites!

Favorite Articles, Stories, Etc.: "You Can't Kill The Rooster" by David Sedaris ●

While I wouldn't say I'm a hoarder, I am a collector of articles, stories, etc. These are some of the prized ones that have crawled inside my skin and becomea a part of me.