Bowling, Tim Matheson, and “Dreamer”

“You just dream about something, that’s all it’s ever gonna be.  Just a dream.” So says Harold Nuttingham in the 1979 film Dreamer, a post-Watergate, feel-good movie with a down-to-earth vibe. Nuttingham dreams of being a bowling...

10 Things I Love About Oriole Park at Camden Yards

It is the birthplace of The Star-Spangled Banner, the resting place of Edgar Allen Poe, and the place where a stadium constructed during the nostalgia-soaked 1980s defines the paradigm for retro ballparks. Baltimore. Petco Park, PNC Park, and several others, indeed,...

Aaron Sorkin and the White House

Before he became the architect of the fictional Bartlet presidency on The West Wing, Aaron Sorkin wrote the 1995 film The American President.  Sorkin’s story depicts the end of President Andrew Shepherd’s first term.  Shepherd, a democrat, is a widower...

Matt Santos vs. Arnold Vinick

In the later episodes of The West Wing, Matt Santos, a Democratic congressman from Texas and a former Mayor of Houston took on Arnold Vinick, a veteran Republican senator from California for the presidency. Santos had just a few years in national politics.  Three...