Author Talk July 30 in Bucks County, PA

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Dorothy Parker was among many New Yorkers who found a second home in beautiful Bucks County, Pennsylvania, in the 1930s. Just 82 miles southwest of Times Square, the rolling hills and farmhouses drew the city dwellers during the Depression. Famous Manhattanites such as Moss Hart and Kitty Carlisle, George and Beatrice Kaufman, and S. J. and Laura Perelman, also moved to the area around Doylestown. Join me at the Doylestown Historical Society Barn on July Continue Reading →

Podcast Episode 48: Planning and Beer Taps

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We have reached episode 48 on our comeback tour. The ramp up today continues as we chat about our upcoming guests and plans for the show, including upcoming trips and planned future guests. Among those we name check are past guests are Chet Lenczewski, a guy who knows an incredible amount of beer, and who Jo has to pay. Sonya Sklaroff is the painter we can’t wait to see again; yes, she is name-checked on Continue Reading →

Joanna and Kevin

Podcast Episode 47: Return from the 27-Month Break

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The podcast is finally back. Joanna and Kevin’s Big Show took an extended break since the last episode in March 2022. Episode 47 here, and we are catching up and planning big things for the show. For Kevin, it was 27 month of a variety of activities. There was 18 months working for NYC Parks and working on a podcast for the city. And in January 2023 becoming Shepherd of The Lambs. Joanna has been Continue Reading →

Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923

Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway Turns 10

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This week Dorothy Parker Complete Broadway, 1918-1923, turns ten years old. It is almost hard to believe that a book I researched for five years has been out for a decade. As I say when I give talks about the book, here are 150,000 words by Dorothy Parker you never read. Such as: “If I were to tell you the plot of the piece, in detail, you would feel that the only honorable thing for Continue Reading →

Franklin P. Adams with his sons, Anthony and Tim. (FPA Collection).

New Project for 2024 is From the Adams Family

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During the last few months I have been processing the papers from the estate of Franklin P. Adams. He is someone I have written a lot about over the last 20 years; he was the dean of the Algonquin Round Table and one of the most famous columnists of the pre-Jazz Age era. Adams was extremely influential on the careers of such notables as Robert Benchley, Dorothy Parker, and Edna Ferber. This fall I was Continue Reading →

Big Show

Episode 46: Poker, Books, Side Hustles, Drinks

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Still a little rusty after our podcasting hiatus, we have dusted off the cobwebs by now for our third episode since our big time off. In this episode, Joanna and Kevin talk about the return of poker playing, writing books, and side hustles. Joanna’s eBay store is heating up, and Kevin is looking forward to going to New Orleans one of these days for Tales of the Cocktails. Will Jo go? We wrap up with Continue Reading →

Patrick and Joanna

Episode 45: Shower Curtain Patrick

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In our second podcast from our too-long hiatus, we welcome our first guest to sit down with us. Shower Curtain Patrick (his bar name) is a longtime regular customer of Joanna’s, and he invented a radical new shower curtain design. He sent a complimentary shower curtain to Jo, which we unbox on the show. The idea came to Patrick when he was sick of “the cling” and the “gunk” of cheap plastic shower curtains, which Continue Reading →

Joanna and Kevin

Episode 44: Return from Hiatus

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In our first broadcast together since May 2020, Joanna and Kevin settle into the groove of getting the Big Show back up and running. We are together again at The Lambs, catching up. It is indeed sad that we lost two of our guests, Billy the Artist from Episode 4, and Big Ed Cody from Episode 16. Ed also recorded our theme song, which we are keeping on the opening and closing of the show. Continue Reading →

O. Henry (NYPL Collection)

The O. Henry Fiction Challenge

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I am launching a fiction reading challenge this month and I invite other fiction fans to join me. I am focused first on O. Henry for a 12-week reading sprint to read his collected works. I’ll be launching an online reading club around it #OHenryReaders on Twitter. Why O. Henry? Because he’s one of the greatest American short fiction writers? Actually, it is because more than a decade ago I picked up 11 of the Continue Reading →

Loudon Park National Cemetery

Podcast About the Memory of WWI

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I had the honor to be part of a podcast that means a lot to me which you can listen to here. So often the podcasts I listen to are about pop culture or true crime, but this one means a lot because it’s about a subject I’ve spent the last ten years contemplating and working side projects about, which is the American memory of World War I. It’s why I took part in the Continue Reading →