“So what’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?” After a decade spent as a paramedic, it’s a question Kevin Hazzard loves to hate. Which stories should he tell? Should he talk about the gunshots, the cardiac arrests, the overdoses, the man swarming with maggots? Or should he lighten the mood and talk about the fake suicide attempts and the surprising amount of nudity? Either way, he knows that people will be listening. Because the dirty secret is we’re all rubberneckers, slowing down to stare at […]
The Story of the Reappearing Teenager
Of course, everything depends on who is telling the story. It always does. I have a story, and though there are considerable parts I’ve had to imagine, the way I saw it was as follows. Twenty years ago, Tara Martin disappeared. Her disappearance wrecked the lives of those she loved. Her parents totally shut down. Her boyfriend Richie- suspected of killing her-squandered his musical talents and crawled into a whiskey bottle. Her brother Peter believed the rumors about Richie and the former best friends stopped […]
Please don’t make me defend a Nazi sympathizer
In Dietrich & Riefenstahl, Karin Wieland compares the lives of two famous German movie personalities. On the surface, Marlin Dietrich and Leni Riefenstahl seem very similar. Born a year apart, both harbored big dreams. Both defied their parents, studied dance and worked as actors. Both took lovers and refused to live their lives the way others demanded. But when Hitler ascended to power, the two women reacted very differently. Dietrich became an American citizen and entertained Allied troops during the war, and Riefenstahl supported Hitler, […]
I got this rat, this gnawing, cheese eating fuckin’ rat…
From Marcus Brutus to Judas Iscariot, there are few figures people hate more than the double-crossing informant. In places like 1970s South Boston, there was a rule about it. Never talk to cops. Don’t be a rat. Better to die or rot in jail than snitch. It was a Mafia rule enforced from the top down. If a guy was even suspected of going to the cops, things weren’t going to end well for him. The notorious gangster Whitey Bulger loved to rail against snitches, […]