Originally published in the AARP Bulletin. BLANCHE BELL, TO HEAR HER FAMILY TELL IT, had the determination of a bulldog—from studying physics at the University of Michigan in the 1940s because it was the toughest major offered to presiding over a family of six. “She was only 4-foot-11, but she was larger than life,” says her son […]
Whitewash
In his new autobiography, Jesse Helms sees himself as a humanitarian—not a racist supporter of brutal right-wing regimes who turned obstructionism into a foreign policy. Originally published in Indy Week. I’VE ONLY MET JESSE HELMS ONCE. I was profiling him for two national magazines during his 1996 Senate race, and for two days I shadowed him […]
Prisoners of Pain
Why are millions of suffering Americans being denied the prescription drug relief they need? Originally published in AARP The Magazine. DEBORAH HAMALAINEN WAS FEELING more and more agitated by the minute. Waiting to see her neurologist, she was silently rehearsing a confrontation that had been building for months. She planned to look the doctor directly in the […]
Fall of a True Believer
How Jack Abramoff gained the whole world and lost just about everything. Originally published in Mother Jones. ON THE FIRST MORNING of the Republican National Convention, the stocky former weightlifter waited nervously for his turn to speak. Just 25 years old, he was impeccably dressed in a dark gray suit and red tie. But he had slipped […]
Whose House Is It Anyway?
A city’s quest for renewal can mean the death of an old neighborhood. Originally published in AARP The Magazine. WILHELMINA DREY HAS LIVED HER ENTIRE 87 YEARS in a blue sea captain’s house near the banks of Connecticut’s Thames River. From the ground floor, her family ran a grocery where the neighborhood’s Italian women congregated Saturday mornings, […]
Going Home
The hospital couldn’t save Jack’s life. But hospice gave him something to live for. Originally published in AARP The Magazine. JACK SMITH LOOKED UP FROM THE EVENING NEWS to see two old buddies bounding down the steps to the basement den of his northeast Philadelphia home. At once his tired face broke into a wicked smile. “There’s […]
Lights Out
Can contact sports lower your intelligence? Originally published in Discover. SOME 20 YEARS AGO, IN FRONT OF A FRENZIED and antagonistic crowd, Harry Carson hurled his entire bulk—240 pounds—into an equally massive human body racing toward him across the field at Washington’s RFK Stadium. A middle linebacker with the New York Giants, Carson was a celebrated defensive […]
Dirty Warriors
How South African hit men, Serbian paramilitaries, and other human rights violators became guns for hire for military contractors in Iraq. Originally published in Mother Jones. WHEN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION TURNED OVER much of its Iraqi security operations to the private sector last year, one of the companies that stood to profit was the London-based Hart Group. […]
Less Sleep, More Energy?
New drugs promise to keep us sharp even when we need shuteye—but at a cost. A different version of this article was published in Reader’s Digest. IN AN ANTISEPTIC ANIMAL LABORATORY in Worcester, Mass., 160 rodents in oversized cages are hooked up, via thirty miles of wire, to a bank of computers that continuously record their vital […]
If I Were a Rich Man
Scenes from the 2004 Republican convention. Originally published in Indy Week. Sunday afternoon The most important men in town would come to fawn on me! They would ask me to advise them… And it won’t make one bit of difference if I answer right or wrong. When you’re rich, they think you really know! —Tevye, […]
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