What’s with the Weird Name?
The blog’s name comes from a sixteenth-century tract entitled A Most Strange and Wonderful Herring Taken Neere Drenton by Jan van Doetecum. Freak members of the family Clupidae were once interpreted as portents of the End of All Things.
What Is the Purpose of Strange Herring?
To horrify and enthrall, shock and disquiet, inspire and demoralize, entertain and confound. And to act as a repository for my disquisitions on film and film-like materials.
Who Are You?
I am a native New Yorker, a product of Lutheran parochial schools, and a University Honors Scholar in film history, theory, and criticism (NYU Tisch School of the Arts). For my sins I have spent the past 20 years or so in publishing, having held the titles managing editor, online editor, copy editor/chief, production editor, humor
editor, and writer for a wide variety of magazines, newspapers, book publishers, and websites, including Discover, Biography, Reader’s Digest, Men’s Fitness, First Things, Commentary, Beliefnet.com, the Wall Street Journal, Individual Investor, and the HistoryChannel.com. I am currently the managing editor for ISI Books, Modern Age journal, and the Intercollegiate Review magazine and website.
And I came this close (my thumb and forefinger are a quarter-inch apart) to getting on the original David Letterman writing staff back in 1981.
More important, I am the husband of a wonderful woman, Denise, a teacher. Twelve years and she’s not sick of me yet. Yet.
What Do You Want?
For everyone within the sound of my voice to send me $11.
How Many Unique Visitors Does Strange Herring Receive Each Day?
Each and every one of my visitors is unique. As for round, measurable numbers, I’m afraid I don’t understand the question—you must speak louder.
Who Are Strange Herring’s Honorary Patrons?
and
Sol Frieder, who famously said, “Of course, when something hurts herring, it hurts me.”
What Is Your Anthem?
“Let’s Hit Hitler Where He Lives.”
Will There Ever Be a Strange Herring Movie?
We are efforting that at the moment. We lack only financing, a cast, a crew, a script, a studio, a distributor, film, and anything resembling public interest. Oh, and a camera thingee.
