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Howard Daniel, Pen-for-Rent Principal
My Immigrant Family
/0 Comments/in Family, History, Nathan Daniel, Russia-USSR, Sandra Kelley /by Howard DanielLena and Meyer Daniel, 1918-19, with children Ray, Sally and Nathan I’m starting off the new year with a bit of century-old history. While Sandra and I were visiting the East Coast a few months ago, my cousin Trude (see photo at the end of this post) showed me a couple of very old photos in […]
Vignettes From Long-Ago Travels
/0 Comments/in Language, Recollections, Thoughts, Travel /by Howard DanielShwedagon Pagoda, Rangoon, from my 1971 visit to Burma As anyone who has followed this blog is surely aware, I did a fair amount in international traveling in decades gone by. In this episode I’m presenting a few recollections from some of those travels. Today, an odd pairing of destinations: Italy and Myanmar (formerly known […]
Who* Are You Kidding?
/4 Comments/in Language, Thoughts, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielI’ll respond to the headline with another question — “Are you just kidding yourself?” If you think your writing works as well as you imagine it does to boost your business or your favorite cause, then maybe you are kidding yourself. By the time we reach adulthood, with school and perhaps even a graduate degree […]
If You Can Keep It
/0 Comments/in Current Events, History, Thoughts /by Howard DanielBenjamin Franklin At the conclusion of the final session of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, a woman approached Ben Franklin and asked, “What have we got, a republic or a monarchy?” Franklin’s response: “A republic — if you can keep it.” Prescient words. Arguably more so today than at any time in the […]
Summer Bookends
/0 Comments/in Coronavirus, Family, Sandra Kelley /by Howard DanielOur granddaughter Sophia reading from the Torah at her bat mitzvah as her parents Jodi and Adam look on. Since I wrote my last blog post two months ago, it’s been an eventful family summer for Sandra and me — and for our kids and grandkids. It kicked off, as summers in the U.S. traditionally […]
The Critical Ingredient
/0 Comments/in Humor, Recollections, Russia-USSR /by Howard DanielA few days ago I joined a recently formed LinkedIn group of alumni of and current students at the REECA (Russia, East Europe and Central Asia) master’s degree program at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. When I was there, 1966–1968, it was known more simply as the Russian Research Center (RRC), […]
Scamming Attempts on Writers Rise to Pulitzer Level
/0 Comments/in Thoughts, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielAs faithful readers will no doubt recall, several weeks ago I recounted on this blog the tale of Jack Schmidt, who chose this obscure business writer as the target of an attempted $4,000 scam. Clearly unfazed by their failure to bag me, Jack and his gang have recently tried upping their game. Their latest target […]
Who Wants to Scam a Writer?
/0 Comments/in Thoughts, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielHow far has the bar been lowered? Perhaps the all-time greatest scammer in history, Bernie Madoff, made a fortune by fleecing the rich and famous. That was over a decade ago. Today, the scammers are no longer setting their sights so high. They actually went after me, a content writer and editor whose earnings have […]
Beating a Cold the Hard Way
/0 Comments/in Danelectro, Family, Recollections, Thoughts, Travel, Writing & editing /by Howard DanielHovercraft crossing the English Channel, the White Cliffs of Dover in the background A cold nearly tripped up our trip to Michigan for our daughter Naomi’s wedding last month. The day before we were to leave (on Thursday before the Sunday wedding), Sandra felt the classic symptoms coming on and was hoping it was just […]
A Marriage Made in … Michigan!
/3 Comments/in Family, Sandra Kelley /by Howard DanielClarke & Naomi, happily married Last Thursday, Sandra and I, accompanied by Melissa — our “Santa Rosa daughter,” the youngest of our three kids — and our granddaughter Amarie, flew to Michigan to participate in the wedding of our eldest kid, Naomi, to a wonderful new son-in-law, Clarke Taylor. The ceremony took place at their […]