Over The Edge – Dan Rosenbaum's random musings

Moving On

OK, I’m about done with September 11 stuff. There’s a reason that Jews say Kaddish only for a year. Then I’ll move on to the usual inanity. Just two more pointers. New York, like many states, runs a passel of gambling games. (A metro columnist for the Albany Times-Union — Barney something-or-other — used to refer […]

Maybe I’m nuts, or maybe

Maybe I’m nuts, or maybe it’s just that I was able to drag myself away from the Tube for most of the day, but I found a lot of the memorials of the day pretty tasteful and restrained. Yep, I’m surprised, too. My main beef goes with the territory: live TV featuring anchors who feel the need to improve […]

Memorial on the Promenade

Last October, I drove my very pregnant wife to Connecticut for a medical appointment. As we reached the middle of the Bronx Whitestone Bridge, traffic slowed to a stop, as it frequently does. So we’re sitting in traffic, the bridge bouncing slightly under us, as suspension bridges do under load, when a passenger jet crossed from […]

More Florida Follies

Try to follow this. If you’re an elected official from Florida, it’s OK — I’ll write slowly. Today is Primary Day in Florida (as it is in New York). Among those running is Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State who figured so prominently in the theft of the last Presidential election. This is the same […]

Report from Foley Square

A report this morning from my wife, Olivia: It is very eerie. The world really has changed. For almost all of my professional life, I have worked within a few blocks of Foley Square, in downtown Manhattan. Sixteen years. Today, just after 9:00 a.m., I came out of the subway and heard the sound […]

Clay’s Back

I was talking with a mutual friend just this weekend about how we hadn’t seen anything new from Clay Shirky in a while. His latest essay popped up the very next day — lucid as always from one of the best thinkers about online culture. If you were a broadcast media outlet thinking about community building, […]

Required Reading

If you’re interested in electoral politics on the national and state levels — and I scarcely need to remind you that we’re deep into Political Season — you should know that ABC News’s The Note is the best daily briefing on the net. Comprehensive and even-handed though by no means impartial. Proof positive (for those who doubt) that national […]

New York on the 11th

Some people think there’s too much emphasis on the anniversary of the September 11 attack. I understand entirely. I’m not at all certain how much if any TV I’ll be able to stomach on the day itself, though I’m quite impressed with the quality of what I’ve seen thus far. 9/11 is a local story […]

Eyewitness Account of 9/11

Many of you know that I watched the second plane hit the South Tower. I wrote this piece for the following day’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which ran it with minor changes. There’s a word or two I’d change, but I’m letting it stand as an example of deadline writing.