Forty years ago, my first article in a national publication appeared in the Freeman. This was also the first piece of mine which paid something other than free copies of the periodical. Actually, the five cents a word pay rate was more than enough to cover a month’s rent. The Freeman, published by the Foundation […]
Happily, I did not have to work as a Santa Claus this year to pay for my beer. I am indebted to Tom Blanton, the mastermind of the Project for a New American Revolution, for this hoppy reminder of my temp work past. Below is the story of my gig as a Santa Claus – an […]
Here’s a MP3 clip of a zesty December 12th interview on the Good American radio show talking about my gig as a Santa Claus. The host was Charles Rivers and it was broadcast on Cambridge/Boston’s WEMF Radio. We had a fine durn time. For the full story on the Santa gig and other misadventures, see Public Policy Hooligan.
A lot of folks say that freelance writers never do any honest work. Pshaw! I worked as a Santa Claus more than 30 years ago, so that charge doesn’t apply to me. Here’s a repost of a riff that was published in the Wall Street Journal three years ago. I used this story in my memoir essay, […]
Wall Street Journal, December 22, 2011 Confessions of a One-Season Santa When I asked one girl what she wanted for Christmas, she gritted her teeth: ‘I want you to leave.’ 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 […]
After years of hearing about how federal agencies believe that the warning signs of a domestic terrorist include people who are gung-ho for the Second Amendment, or who are contemptuous of Congress, and even folks who get perturbed at waiting in grocery store lines – there is a new terrorist warning sign of which I […]
