Internet Nostalgia

Welcome to part 16 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week, Susan Boyle’s first appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent.” This week: The Balloon Boy Hoax.

Date: October 15, 2009

The Story: I specifically remember that Balloon Boy happened on a Thursday afternoon. It was a long…

I’ve been running this particular column every Father’s Day week since I first wrote it, back in 2003, in whatever venue I happened to be scribbling for at the time. Medium readers, it is now your turn. I hope it is a fine story, and also that it’s illustrative of how I’ve grown as a writer over the last 18 years. Happy Father’s Day.

Until the age of 18, all I ever did was play baseball, and this time of year fills me with both wonder and deep regret. Save for occasional wiffleball games in the park, my ball-playing days…

This Sunday will be my 10th Father’s Day as a father. My first son was born in November 21, 2011, and not a single thing in my life has been the same since. I did not know how tumultuous the next 10 years of American life would be when my son was born. I’ve learned a lot about myself, and my country, and my fellow citizens, in those 10 years. But I’ve learned even more about being a father.

In honor of those 10 Father’s Days, here are 10 Things I’ve Learned About Being a Father.

1. Schedules are everything, even when you ignore them.

My wife and I…

Internet Nostalgia

Welcome to part 15 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week, Lazy Sunday. This week: Susan Boyle’s first appearance on “Britain’s Got Talent.”

Date: April 11, 2009.

The Story: Susan Boyle could always sing. She had spent years entering singing competitions, but she was never able…

For the first, oh, nine months of the pandemic, I — and everybody else — was way too worried about masks. Not that they weren’t important: They were, vitally so, which is why I wore mine any time I wasn’t in my house. What obsessed me, along with too many of us, for too long, was whether other people were wearing them. When we look back at the Great Pandemic Year of 2020 in the United States, one of the things we will regret wasting so much of our time and energy on will be mask shaming.

Boy, did we…

This, this right here is a good joke:

That Jeff Bezos is going into space seems inevitable, doesn’t it? At a certain level, what in the world is the point of ruining small businesses and stomping your boot on the collective throat of your workers if you can’t blast off into space? As one of those lame, essentially worthless non-millionaires, I’ve always wondered what the point of amassing such unimaginable wealth as Bezos has. At a certain point, wouldn’t any reasonable person just say, “OK, now that wear a suit made of $10,000 bills while walking around a beach…

Internet Nostalgia

Welcome to part 14 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week, Chuck Norris Facts. This week: Lazy Sunday.

Date: December 17, 2005.

The story: The first-ever Lonely Island sketch filmed for “Saturday Night Live” was about lettuce. It was called “Lettuce.” It wasn’t really a Lonely…

The pandemic is not over in the United States. But it sure feels close, right? As The New York Times’ David Leonhardt pointed out this morning, Covid-19 cases in this country are plummeting while, not coincidentally, the number of vaccinations being given are increasing after a brief dip a few weeks ago. (As Leonhardt notes, this increase coincides with the CDC announcing that vaccinated people no longer had to wear masks.) Many states have already re-opened entirely, and the ones that haven’t, the ones among the more cautious ones throughout the pandemic, are about to, including Illinois and California. Covid-19…