Twinship—dual identity, two selves inhabiting the same body—intrigued Mark Twain and flooded his fiction. He was fascinated by an exhibition of Giacomo and Giovanni Tocci, Italian brothers conjoined at the rib cage with one set of … Read more
What makes a woman The Other? Race? Ethnicity? Sexual orientation? Skin color? Wanting a family, not a career, first? Or does a woman become The Other by just being a woman, not a man? I’m asking … Read more
After leaving New York City in a huff in October 1853, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) worked as a printer in Philadelphia for five months. He visited the “old cracked ‘Independence Bell’” and sat on the same … Read more
It’s Sunday, Oct. 23, my first day off from the Twain trip. I’m spending it in Scituate, Mass., with my wife, Nancy; younger daughter, Laura; son-in-law Mike MacMillan; and their three children. Infant Joy (who is … Read more
Videos on YouTube portray Southbridge, Mass., as a dying mill town of loonies and losers. A snippet from producer Rod Murphy’s “Greater Southbridge” documentary makes Jerry Sciesnewski, a stuttering collector of empty soda and beer cans, … Read more
Loren Ghiglione (b. April 5, 1941) was president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors (1989-1990) during his 26 years (1969-1995) as editor-publisher-owner of the Southbridge (Mass.) Evening News. He then consulted to The Newseum (1995-96), directed journalism program at Emory (1996-99), USC (1999-2001) and Northwestern (2001-06), and served as president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (2006-07). He has written or edited eight books about journalism and teaches global journalism and media history at Northwestern.
