Steve Wasserman
New York
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Articles by Steve Wasserman
LIONS CLUB: It’s time for back to school!
Back to School is one of those phrases that always brings out some emotion when you mention it. That emotion can range from dread to excitement. It is one that has brought the full range of those emotions to my life in kind of a roller coaster ride. When I was in elementary school, it was extremely exciting. I loved school and I loved learning. We used to “play school” during the summers, and being the oldest, I was the teacher for my younger sister and brother.
Too L.A.: Letters Never Sent (But Some Were) by Eve Babitz
A Review By STEVE WASSERMAN Last things first: Eve Babitz is a major minor L.A. writer who died five years ago at age 78. She spent nearly a quarter-century as a recluse, having suffered in 1997 a shocking and disfiguring accident while striking a match to light her Tiparillo. Her thin Indian skirt caught fire, searing her pantyhose into her flesh, leaving her with third-degree burns over more than half her body. She was lucky to survive. She had no health insurance.
LIONS CLUB: A new president, rooted in service
We didn’t make it to the Lions International Convention this year. It was held in Hong Kong from July 3-7. It just seemed too far, too expensive and too hot for us to go. We also didn’t have any personally compelling reasons to go, so it was kind of an easy one to skip. They held elections without us, and it was no great surprise that our first vice president was elected to be president for the 2026-27 Lions Year. His name is, believe it or not, Mark Lyon.
'Everybody wanted to be me': Inside Eve Babitz's private letters
Last things first: Eve Babitz is a major minor L.A. writer who died five years ago at age 78. She spent nearly a quarter-century as a recluse, having suffered in 1997 a shocking and disfiguring accident while striking a match to light her Tiparillo. Her thin Indian skirt caught fire searing her panty hose into her flesh, leaving her with third-degree burns over more than half her body. She never published again, though many championed her gifts, including me.
LIONS CLUB: Did you feel the Fourth?
When I was a kid, my parents always took our family someplace to see the fireworks on the Fourth of July. I remember going “ooh” and “aah” at the pretty displays while laying on a blanket at North Commons Park in Minneapolis, wondering how in the world such things could be made. Our parents would buy us “sparklers” that we delighted in waving around. One of my more vivid memories was when the big boomers went off. A huge bright explosion of light and sound.
LIONS CLUB: Lions had a busy year in 2025
You might wonder why the Faribault Lions Club would do a “Year in Review” in June. We do it in June because the new Lions year begins on July 1. The Lions International Convention will take place on July 3-7 in Hong Kong. At that convention, our international president, A.P. Singh from Kolkata, India, will provide highlights of the Lions year. Attendees will hear about there now being 1,399,002 Lions in 50,637 clubs in more than 200 countries around the world.
Remembering Ann Dragoon Wasserman, ballerina who taught Berkeley dance-exercise class into her 90s
Ann Wasserman outside her daughter Sherry’s Berkeley home on April 7, 2022. Credit: Kelly Sullivan for Berkeleyside “Heel and toe, and away I go”: Ann Dragoon Wasserman, Aug. 8, 1929 – May 27, 2026 My mother, Ann Dragoon Wasserman, a pillar of Berkeley’s cultural and political life since moving to the city in 1963, died last week, 10 weeks shy of her 97th birthday, of natural causes peacefully in her sleep in her North Berkeley home on what would have been her late husband Al’s 96th birthday.
Remembering Ann Dragoon Wasserman, ballerina who taught Berkeley dance-exercise class into her 90s
Culture 1 hour ago The Met will offer free membership for New Yorkers on SNAP Gothamist - By Karen Yi • 1h New Yorkers receiving food assistance benefits known as SNAP are now eligible for a free membership to the Metropolitan Museum of Art that grants … travel news Now One of the East Coast’s Best Beach Towns Is Just 1.5 Hours From Manhattan—With Surfing, 7 Miles of Coastline, and a 5.5-mile Boardwalk Travel + Leisure - Zoey Goto • 56m It's a classic choice for good reason.
The Rise and Fall and Rise of American Publishing
Steve Wasserman Archive The Rise and Fall and Rise of American Publishing ◄►◄►▲▼ • B In January, I wrote for the Winter 2026 issue of LIBERTIES quarterly journal a lengthy consideration of the state of American publishing. LIBERTIES was founded five years ago by Leon Wieseltier, the former longtime literary editor of The New Republic, and my essay is reprinted by ScheerPost with permission.
LIONS CLUB: Recycling electronics has never been more accessible than it is now
April is a month of rebirth, renewal and recycling. The branches on all the trees that looked dead all winter are starting to show buds again, and those branches will soon be recycled into limbs holding leaves providing oxygen, then fruits bearing seeds that will ensure continuation of the species. As a science teacher, I found nature fascinating during all seasons, but spring was always special. It represented an awakening, a new beginning and hope.
LIONS CLUB: Join us for Lions Membership Month
Those of you who have read my columns in the past know that I always include some references to the Faribault Lions Club, but never overtly campaign for people to join our club. This month is a little different, actually asking you to consider joining the Faribault Lions Club. Why? Because we need you. We need new Lions to bring new ideas and new ways of doing things to our club. We need new Lions to make us aware of needs in the Faribault community and beyond where we may be of service.
LIONS CLUB: Be My Valentine?
The holiday we now call valentine’s day goes back farther than you might suspect. My trusty Google search reveals that it has its roots in an Ancient Roman Festival of Fertility (Lupercalia). During Lupercalia, pagans would honor the agricultural god Faunus with animal sacrifices believed to ensure fertility. Then they used strips of hide to gently whip women, believing it would increase their fertility. Of course, now we realize that cards, flowers and chocolates are the real keys to fertility.
LIONS CLUB: Time is relative
One of the benefits of aging is the ability to look back at the many life experiences you have had. Like you, I can recall some wonderful experiences and some-not-so-good ones. The one thing common to them all is that they have all passed. The good ones didn’t last nearly long enough, and the unpleasant ones carried on for way too long, but I made it through them all. It seemed like time went slower when I was a kid.
LIONS CLUB: A season of arrival, a call to kindness
It has truly been a strange autumn. The weather for the most part was beautiful. Yes, we had a few cold days, but those were just a reminder that “it could be worse.” I knew winter was coming, but just thought that maybe, it would be so mild this year we’d hardly notice. I was able to keep doing yard work right up until Thanksgiving. Totally unheard of. Then, wham, winter was upon us and the garden hoses I had been using to water trees were suddenly under 4 inches of snow.
LIONS CLUB: Don't just have a happy Thanksgiving - give one
It’s hard to believe it’s November already, and Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. Plans are being made for turkey dinner with all the trimmings. Our family traditions include candied sweet potatoes, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, garlic bread and pumpkin and pecan pies. Our daughter now does most of the cooking and hosts us and the three grandkids along with a few friends (this year will include a granddaughter’s spouse).
The Curious Case of the Late David Horowitz
By Steve Wasserman / Original to ScheerPost The death on April 29 of my old nemesis, David Horowitz, at age 86 after a long battle with cancer, prompts these recollections of a man I knew 55 years ago when he edited Ramparts magazine in its senescence, and later sought to have me fired when I was editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review.
Large Miami-Dade warehouse breaks ground - South Florida Business Journal
Preview this article 1 min Despite higher vacancy rates in the county, industrial development is moving forward. THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE IS FOR PREMIUM MEMBERS Continue Reading For $1 Per Week Access 4 weeks of award-winning news and insights Never Hit Another Paywall Subscribe Now Already have a paid subscription? Sign in STORY HIGHLIGHTS Seagis Property Group is developing an industrial park in Medley. Construction began this month, finishing in the fourth quarter.
Review: Memoir in essays from publisher Steve Wasserman reveals a rigorous and searching mind
“Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie: A Memoir in Essays” by Steve Wasserman. Photo: Heyday Books “It was impossible to grow up in Berkeley and not be drawn to the archipelago of bookstores that shaped the era,” writes bookman Steve Wasserman in “Tell Me Something, Tell Me Anything, Even If It’s a Lie,” his memoir in essays that spans his coming of age in the ‘60s to the present era of publishing.
On the Environmental and Philosophical Factors Behind Literary Creation
What do we think we mean when we say, “a writer’s space”? Is such a space different than, say, any other citizen’s space? Is the space of a writer a physical place—the place where the writing is done, the den, the office, the hotel room, the bar or café, the bedroom, upon a desk or table or any available fat and stable surface? Article continues after advertisement Or is the “writer’s space” an inner region of the mind?
It's a great time to help a neighbor facing food insecurity
While politicians bluster about how great the economy is doing, while the stock market reaches record highs, while inflation eases and unemployment falls, a simple fact remains. There are many among us who struggle. kAm%96D6 A6@A=6 2C6?’E =2KJ ?6’6C\5@\H6==D[ E96J 2C6?’E H6=72C6 4962ED[ 2?5 E96J’C6 ?@E 5CF8 255:4ED DA6?5:?8 E96:C =2DE ?:4<6= @? 4C24< 4@42:?6] %96J 2C6 @FC 7C:6?5D[ @FC ?6:893@CD 2?5 @FC 72>:=J] %96J 2C6 FD]k^Am kAmp44@C5:?8 E@ E96 #:46 r@F?EJ r@>>F?:EJ p4E:@? r6?E6C[ @?6 :?
New York Needs a Gun Licensing Authority
The New York legislature responded vigorously to the United States Supreme Court’s overturning of the Sullivan Act, by strengthening its traditionally tight control over carrying concealed firearms in public places. The 2022 Control Carry Improvement Act (CCIA), enacted on the heels of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v.
Lions go on (figurative) service parades
The first two weeks of February is a very busy time for the Faribault Lions Club. We have parades on the first two Sundays of the month. A parade in February, you say? Yes. kAm%96 7:CDE @?6 H2D E96 A2C256 @7 A6@A=6 H9@ 42>6 E@ E96 p>6C:42? {68:@? E@ 5:?6 @? E96 36DE A2?42<6D :? E@H?
Should People’s Park Be Consigned to the Ash Heap of History?
Activism / Many argue that after five decades of resisting the University of California’s repeated attempts to reclaim the park, it’s time to let go of the past and move on. We disagree. Ad Policy Berkeley, Calif.—One of the last great battles of the 1960s—the struggle over the iconic People’s Park, founded in 1969—is now all but over.
Maybe Lions need more 'rizz' and to banish the word 'can't'
The turn of the calendar from 2023 to 2024 is traditionally a time to look forward for what is to come in this brand-new year. It is also a time to look back at all that has happened in the last 12 months. One of those traditions I find most entertaining is the proclamation of the Word of the Year. kAm%96 ~I7@C5 &?:G6CD:EJ !C6DD :D E96 >@DE H6== <?@H? 2?5 >@DE 6286C=J 2?E:4:A2E65 AC@4=2:>6C @7 E96 (@C5 @7 E96 *62C] p44@C5:?8 E@ :ED H63D:E6[ “%96 ~I7@C5 (@C5 @7 E96 *62C :D 2 H@C5 @C 6IAC6DD:@?
Dear Hitch
Related Information Check for updates Version of Record online: 20 December 2023 Manuscript accepted: 27 November 2023 Manuscript received: 15 November 2023 The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.
Find the true joy of giving
December is National Giving Month. No, not really. Neither congress nor the executive branch have ever declared any month to be National Giving Month. But December is the de facto National Giving Month. kAm{2DE J62C[ p>6C:42?D 5@?2E65 @G6C Sc`_ 3:==:@? E@ 492C:EJ[ b`T @7 H9:49 @44FCC65 5FC:?8 s646>36C]k^Am kAm$@[ H92E :D ;@Jn %96 5:4E:@?2CJ 567:?:E:@?
Every season has its own new beginnings
In June, I wrote about the approaching end of the Lions’ year. July 1 was the beginning of a new year. I want to share some observations and fill in some details here in August. kAmx <?@H E92E H96? >@DE A6@A=6 E9:?< 23@FE 2 ?6H 368:??:?8[ E96J E9:?< 23@FE DAC:?8] }6H =62G6D 2AA62C @? EC66D 2?5 D9CF3D[ ?6H D665D 86E A=2?E65 :?
Lions help provide personal independence days
In the United States, we celebrate the 4th of July as Independence Day. Like most holidays, we often get wrapped up in the celebration without appreciating the true significance of the occasion. On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress ratified the Declaration of Independence at Independence Hall in Philadelphia. kAm%96 `b 4@=@?:6D 564=2C65 E96:C :?56A6?56?46 7C@> t?8=2?5] s:5 E92E >62?
The service provided by Lions never ends
The end is coming. June is the last month of the 2022-2023 Lions’ Year. After the International Convention in Boston July 7-12, we will have new leadership, new goals to set and attain, and new service to perform. It’s time to celebrate our accomplishments, and maybe even brag a little. kAmx7 J@F C625 E9:D 4@=F>? =2DE yF=J[ J@F >2J C6>6>36C E92E @FC x?E6C?2E:@?2= !C6D:56?E :D qC:2? $96692? 7C@> q:C5 xD=2?5[ |:??6D@E2] w:D E6C> :? @77:46 DFC6 D66>D E@ 92G6 A2DD65 BF:4<=J] {:@? qC:2?
Guide dogs can make a huge difference in safety, independence
Perhaps you know that May is National Smile Month. Did you know that it is also National Bike Month, National Military Appreciation Month, National Pet Month, and National Stroke Awareness Month among quite a few others. Wikipedia contains a long list of month-long observances used by governments, groups, and organizations to raise awareness of an issue, commemorate a group or event, or celebrate something.
Boom Times for the End of the World
My dear friend Scott Timberg took his own life back in 2019. I think about him every day. Scott was an exemplary journalist who covered arts and culture with deep knowledge and acute insight. If he had lived, I would have tried to enlist him as my partner on The Honest Broker. In fact, Scott was the first person I told about my concept of an honest broker as a role model for journalists—long before Substack existed.
Ophthalmologist lives out the 'we serve' mission
The Faribault Lions Club was chartered on October 11, 1921 to live out the Lions International motto: “We Serve.” What a legacy to continue to serve the Faribault community for almost 102 years! It was in 1925 that Helen Keller spoke to the Lions International Convention at Cedar Point, Ohio, and challenged the assembly to become “knights of the blind in a crusade against darkness.” The Lions accepted that challenge, not only as a project to be tackled, but as a guiding principle.
Rest in Print
David Lance Goines died at his home in Berkeley on Sunday, February 19, 2023. He was 77 years old and had recently had a stroke. He was one of the country’s most talented graphic artists, and his posters were internationally renowned. He was a virtuoso offset pressman who printed all of his own posters. For decades, we’d been friends and, in recent years, collaborators. This essay was adapted from the Alta newsletter, delivered every Thursday. SIGN UP I first met David in 1969, when I was 17.
56th Lions breakfast was again well supported
The Faribault Lions Club, chartered in 1921, once again held its annual “all you can eat” pancake and sausage breakfast fundraiser this past Sunday. This year marked the 56th year of making pancakes from the secret recipe that has been passed down within one of the Lions member’s families. Lion Bill Harkins, known as the “Pancake King” made the secret-recipe pancakes for decades.
Make a small but significant change
Are you among the 39% of American adults who made at least one New Year’s Resolution this year? Are you among the 23% of resolution makers who have given up on their resolution already, or are you among the 9% who will keep their resolution for at least one year? While those statistics may seem bleak to you, I find it heartening that there is almost one in 10 adults who is a better person in some way than they were last year. One of my resolutions years ago was to always look on the bright side.
Remembering Al Wasserman, an extraordinarily disciplined person, who possessed an iron will
Skip to content May 27, 1930 – Nov. 7, 2022 Al Wasserman died at the age of 92 under a blood moon in Oakland on Nov. 7. He was surrounded by his wife, Ann, and his three children, Steve, Rena and Sherry. Al was a noble and principled man who led an extraordinary life, married to Ann Dragoon for more than 70 years, boyfriend and girlfriend since they were 14 in the Bronx.
Strict and Constitutional Gun Regulation for New York
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on gun carrying rights, NYS Rifle and Pistol Assoc v. Bruen, has obliged Albany to make major revisions to New York’s venerable licensing law for carrying concealed firearms in public places. The court in Bruen invalidated a pivotal provision in the 1913 Sullivan Act which limited availability of “concealed carry” licenses to applicants who had “proper cause,” or a special reason to carry a gun. PL 400.00(2)(f).
Lions print dictionaries still have unsung benefits
It’s September, and for many that means back to school. For the Faribault Lions Club, it means it’s time to order dictionaries. The Faribault Lions have proudly provided dictionaries to every third-grade student in Faribault, Nerstrand, and Medford for the last 19 years. Each student receives a dictionary of their very own. They write their names on the label we put on each dictionary, use it during the school year, then take it home to keep.
Another Look’s 10th anniversary pick: Glenway Wescott’s “The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story” - Wednesday, October 5!
Another Look was launched in November 2012, with William Maxwell’s So Long See You Tomorrow. Now we celebrate our tenth anniversary with another wonderful and too-little-known book, Glenway Wescott‘s 1940 novella The Pilgrim Hawk: A Love Story (NYRB Classics). The event will take place at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 5, at Levinthal Hall in the Stanford Humanities Center, 424 Santa Teresa Street, on the Stanford campus. The event will also be livestreamed.
Lions Club helps fight childhood cancer
With the Rice County Relay For Life recently completing their 30th (and final) event, it seemed a good time for a column focusing on the newest area of service for Lions around the world: Childhood cancer. Caner is one of the leading causes of death for children and adolescents around the world. Statistics indicate approximately 300,000 children under the age of 19 are diagnosed with cancer each year. Childhood cancers are not the same as adult cancers in several important ways.
Lion puts Bird Island on the map
Most people living in Faribault have at least heard of Bird Island. Many could give you at least a rough idea of where it is located. And some have even been there. Now Lions from around the world are hearing about it, learning at least vaguely where it is, and getting to know someone who actually lives there. The person responsible for Lions everywhere asking the question and learning of the answer is Lion Brian Sheehan.
Lions recycle to help people see
Do you have an old pair of eyeglasses lying around unused? Many of us do. We get an eye exam, we get new glasses and set the old ones in a desk drawer wondering what in the world to do with them. If you’re like me, you hate to throw them in the trash, knowing they’ll just end up in the landfill, so they stay in the junk drawer taking up space. Perhaps you know that someone, somewhere should be able to use them. If only there were some way to match people in need with those no longer needed glasses.
One Brother Gave the Soviets the A-Bomb. The Other Got a Medal.
J. Edgar Hoover had both of them in his sights. Yet neither one was ever arrested. The untold story of how the Hall brothers beat the FBI. fb tw mail Print msg wa sms Bookmark January 4, 2022 He ain’t heavy: Although Air Force Maj. Ed Hall (left) didn’t share his brother’s rosy view of the USSR, he helped Ted (center) evade J. Edgar Hoover. (background: Corbis via Getty Images; right: AP) Subscribe to The Nation Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Get The Nation’s Weekly Newsletter Fridays.
The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969
In eyewitness testimonies and hundreds of remarkable photographs, The Battle for People’s Park, Berkeley 1969 commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of one of the most searing conflicts that closed out the tumultuous 1960s: the Battle for People’s Park. In April 1969, a few Berkeley activists planted the first tree on a University of California-owned, abandoned city block on Telegraph Avenue. Hundreds of people from all over the city helped build the park as an expression of a politics of joy.
Susan Sontag: Critic and Crusader
JULY 1, 2015 The following is a feature article from the most recent edition of the LARB Quarterly Journal: Spring 2015. To pick up your copy of the Journal, become a member of the Los Angeles Review of Books at the $15 monthly level or order a copy at amazon.com, indiebound.com, or b&n.com. Lecture delivered at SUSAN SONTAG REVISITED symposium at the Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin, 29 January 2015.
Rage and Ruin: On the Black Panthers
A new history of the party is too close to its subject, and misses the human drama. fb tw mail Print msg wa sms In the early morning hours of April 1, 1967, in North Richmond, California, a small, impoverished, all-black town near Oakland, Denzil Dowell lay dead in the street.
Remembering Scott Timberg
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DECEMBER 16, 2019 SCOTT TIMBERG, the polymath arts journalist with a fierce love for the city of Los Angeles and a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of music and literature, died on December 10. He was 50. The cause was suicide, said the family.
By Tom Zoellner, Lynell George, Stanton Hall, Richard Thompson, Charles McNulty Verified, Janet Fitch, Steve Wasserman, Ted Gioia, Andy Hermann, Joe Donnelly Verified, Bill Holdship, Tony Ortega Verified, Tim Appelo, Dean Kuipers, Alissa Quart, Robert George, Willis Peter Bilderback, Jeffrey Turrentine Verified, Dana Gioia
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Poetry Koan #1: Death Whispers In My Ear
Vladimir Nabokov’s drawing of Kafka’s beetle, drawn in the teaching copy of his Metamorphosis Every morning I get out of bed, lie down on my yoga mat in a kind of upended beetle pose – the Gregor Samsa pose is how I like to think of it, although I believe the formal term for this pose is Pavanamuktāsana.
When Will the Justice Department Take On Amazon?
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