Mises Institute, August 11, 2020 Why I Write by James Bovard I was born in Iowa, raised in the mountains of Virginia, and attended Virginia Tech sporadically from 1974 to 1976 before dropping out to try my luck writing. At some point in the late 1970s, individual liberty became my highest political value and I […]
Tag Archives | Memoir
Daily Caller: Spooky Laughs, Lusty Moms, and the Real Meaning of Christmas
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 […]
Confessions of a One Season Santa – WSJ
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 […]
My Last Father’s Day Letter (2001)
I was sorting through the clutter on a kitchen desk this morning and stumbled across the letter reposted below. I wrote this shortly after my father had been diagnosed with the leukemia that would finish him off the following February. This was the kind of letter that it is easy to put off writing – […]
Easter & My Insane Rabbit-Terrorist Gig in Boston
Technically, I was never an Easter Rabbit – at least not that I can remember. (Some Easter dinners involved way too much beer.) But when I lived in Boston, I served time as a Beatrix Potter promotion rabbit at a Filene’s Department store in nearby Manchester, New Hampshire. Except that the bizarre outfit looked more […]
Post-Inaugural Rage & Loathing – My Hot Times in 2005
There have been some screaming matches on Washington-bound flights between people coming for Trump’s inauguration versus the Women’s March the following day. A dozen years ago, I saw – well, maybe sparked – similar fracases on a flight from Washington to Dallas, Texas, two days after Bush’s second inaugural speech whooped up forcibly spreading freedom […]
My Path-Breaking Work at the Harvard Business School
The Northeast is getting whacked by a blizzard, bringing back memories of one of my favorite gigs when I lived in Boston in the late 1970s. Following is an excerpt from the Public Policy Hooligan chapter on “Playing Left Field in Boston.” That chapter begins, “My 1977 move to Boston was akin to the Beverly […]