New York Post, December 24, 2021 Confessions of a one-season department-store Santa by James Bovard In the fall of 1977, I moved to Boston seeking literary triumphs and intellectual stimulation. As a 21-year-old college dropout from the mountains of Virginia who had just sold his first article, I assumed I could easily rack up […]
Mises Institute, July 11, 2020 You Don’t Have to “Cultivate Poverty” to Pursue Truth, Contrary to Thoreau by James Bovard Henry David Thoreau has inspired generation of Americans to live fuller, freer lives. From his story of spending a night in jail as a tax protestor in “Civil Disobedience” to his chronicle of solitary living […]
American Conservative, July 9, 2020 19th Century Radical Chic: How Transcendentalists’ Swooned Over John Brown Thoreau and Emerson’s effort to canonize the abolitionist fanatic helped spark the Civil War. by Jim Bovard Many Americans have been aghast at violent mobs toppling statues and the widespread looting and destructive rampages that followed the killing of George […]
American Renewal Fear And Loathing In A Mall Santa Uniform Spooky Laughs, Lusty Moms, and the Real Meaning of Christmas by James Bovard When I moved from the mountains of Virginia to Boston in 1977, it was just like the Beverly Hillbillies going to California except I didn’t have $80 million. I had dropped […]
It’s a coin toss which is more damnably confounding – contemporary journalism or contemporary philosophy. Reminded of this conundrum by the latest New Yorker article whooping up Elizabeth Anderson, a University of Michigan philosophy professor, as the great hope for American equality. The 8000-word profile was an exercise in faith building which failed to sway […]
Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, and Happy Festivus to everyone! When I worked as a Santa Claus in Boston in 1977, I met a lot of zany characters including a Boss from Hell who would tell me “go out there & look jolly DAMMIT!” But the most vivid memory is of a mother and daughter who […]
In my wayward youth, I worked one season as a Santa Claus at a Filene’s Department Store in Boston. I wrote up that escapade for the Wall Street Journal in 2011. This piece is an outtake from Public Policy Hooligan – which includes some other details of that gig not fit for a family newspaper. The […]
Jim
Thanks a lot!
timmy taes
The Two and Only is my favorite podcast on the Int
David Smithson
Right you are. Retired now, I worked for many yea
Ron Redrift
Sorry to hear of your tiff with Mr. Wilson; hope i
timmy taes
Well, at least you didn't need a costume for
