Back When - WSJ column
A Note from Me
This column, which I started writing for The Wall Street Journal in 2023, should now be considered a sealed document. It ended when my editor left the Journal in the Spring of 2026. It took its historical shape by accident, like Ivory soap. I agreed to write a column about pop culture, but, every variation of the term we might use as a title – pop this, pop that, pop has a big fat cat – seemingly being trademarked and the first column edited and set to go, we landed, as if by default – as if sticking with the factory settings – on “Back When”. It made sense for column one, which was about Wiffle ball and the devastating sinker I was throwing in the driveways of Glencoe, Illinois in the 1980s. But then the face assumed the shape of the mask, meaning that just about every essay started with some memory, some bit of lore, from my own past. Because these pieces were only 700 words, they took the shape of fables, like Aesop, with the story followed by the lesson, meaning or moral. Life it not like that, not really, but it’s a good way to write. At least for a while. I probably could have gone on that way forever, but I am glad it ended when it did. Repetition can turn you into a hack.
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The Wisdom of Keith Richards at 82
Solving the mystery of the guitarist’s longevity may be our best hope of aging gracefully
Study Abroad Taught Me a Lot—Like That I’m Not a Brit
The most important thing I learned at Oxford is how American I am.
Never Be Too Cool for Your Own Life: Why It Was a Mistake to Skip My Senior Prom
Fear of rejection kept me at home with some friends, beers and Springsteen, a decision I came to regret.
Admit It: Mister Softee Gives You the Creeps Too
The cloying ice-cream truck jingle evokes life’s fleeting pleasures.
The Outlaw Pleasures of My Teenage Fake ID
It didn’t need to be perfect, just good enough that the minimart guy could sell us beer.
John Belushi Was Just Getting Started
What lingers is the energy, the libertine dazzle, the fool in motion.
The Patriotic Wisdom of Bill Murray’s Silly Speech in ‘Stripes’
We’re still a nation of loyal, sometimes lovable mutts ‘whose forefathers were kicked out of every decent country in the world.’
Why ‘Rocky’ Deserved to Beat ‘Taxi Driver’ for Best Picture
The classic boxing movie offered hope in a bleak 1970s America.
What Shop Class Taught Me About Myself and the World
Amid the dangers of the circular saw, we learned how to achieve things step by step
We Never Really Escape the Gym-Class Draft
What I learned in 8th grade P.E.
The Glory Days of Bruce Springsteen, and Me
The Springsteen I loved was the Jersey beach rat before he became the voice of the people
The Bombs Bursting in Air
The fireworks of July Fourths past offered the thrill of the near miss
The Model Rockets That Carried Us to the Stars
When kids built model rockets in the 1960s and ‘70s, they weren’t just hobbyists, but participants in the Space Age.
The Glory Days of the American Mall
In the 1980s, malls weren’t just planters and parking lots but a way of life.
Playing Risk Made Cold-War Kids Masters of an Unruly Globe
A board game showed us that alliances have limits, odds don’t predict the future, and it’s fool’s work to invade Ukraine.
For a Suburban Kid, There Was No Purer Sport Than Wiffle Ball
We got so good that we yearned for a pro circuit to show off our skills. The game’s simple essence: Make the other guy whiff like an idiot.