Fun Facts

I'm a word nut. "Logophile" is a fancy word for it. I had five years of Latin starting in the seventh grade and, many years later, I still retain knowledge of many words that I memorized long ago. I also studied German and had a smattering of French and Spanish. I get a kick out of foreign expressions and I like deciphering word roots. For example, "sombrero" has the same root as "umbrella" -- both from the Latin word for "shadow." It comes together when I do the Sunday NY Times crossword puzzle

About Me

A longtime, award-winning journalist, I've written for Business Week, The Boston Globe, The New York Times and The Texas Observer, among other top publications. I earned a Knight-Bagehot fellowship at maryland/columbia">columbia">maryland/columbia">Columbia Univ. Journalism School. One source of satisfaction: I helped save the franklin">Franklin Mountains in El Paso when the state land commissioner read my articles, toured the mountains, and got the Texas Legislature to preserve a vast amount of acreage from development. It all goes back to education.

Experience

I've taught journalism at the college level at Texas State University in San Marcos, and I've substitute taught at the high school level, mostly in my hometown of newton">Newton, Mass. Over the years I've written chapters for textbooks and I've been asked to speak to graduate school, college and high school classes. I've mentored younger writers on the rudiments of reporting and helped advance careers. When I lived in Washington, I tutored English and reading to inmates at the Arlington, Va. county jail

Approach

I was an avid reader as a kid and I'm a strong believer in giving young people stories that hold their attention. For me, reading the sports pages & playing sports led me to "Sports Illustrated" and books and short stories by writers like Ring Lardner and Jack London. Ernest Hemingway wrote about bullfights in "The Sun Also Rises" and Norman Mailer about prizefighters like Muhammad Ali and Jose Torres. The skill of reading closely about wins and losses can translate into mastering a legal brief.