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{{Short description|American writer (born 1951)}}
{{pp-semi|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
{{Infobox writer
| caption =
| caption =
| image = FranzLidz5&25&2009.jpg
| image = FranzLidz5&25&2009.jpg
| birthname = Franz (Stephen) Ira Lidz
| birth_name = Franz Ira Lidz
| birthdate = {{Birth date and age|1951|9|24}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|9|24}}
| birthplace = [[New York, New York]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| birth_place = [[New York City]], U.S.
| notableworks = ''Unstrung Heroes (1991)''<br />''Ghosty Men (2003)''<br />''Fairway To Hell (2008)''
| notableworks =
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| spouse = Maggie Lidz (1976–present)
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''Unstrung Heroes (1991)''
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| children = Gogo, Daisy
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| occupation = {{flatlist|
* [[Journalist]]
* memoirist
* American professional basketball executive
⚫
}}
| alma_mater = [[Antioch College]]
}}


'''Franz Lidz''' (born September 24, 1951) is an American writer, journalist and pro basketball executive.
''Ghosty Men (2003)''


A ''[[New York Times]]'' archaeology, science and film essayist,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/09/movies/film-sorry-uma-there-s-only-one-emma.html "Film; Sorry, Uma, There's Only One Emma"], August 9, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/29/movies/film-the-scenery-though-he-won-t-chew.html?referringSource=articleShare "Film; The Scenery, Though, He Won't Chew"], September 29, 2002 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/movies/27lidz.html "Biblical Adversity in a '60s Suburb"], September 23, 2009 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/science/pliny-archaeology-skull-vesuvius.html "Here Lies the Skull of Pliny the Elder, Maybe"], February 14, 2020 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/14/science/pliny-archaeology-skull-vesuvius.html "At the Sourdough Library, With Some Very Old Mothers"], April 11, 2020 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/18/science/koepcke-diller-panguana-amazon-crash.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage "She Fell Nearly Two Miles And Walked Away"], June 18, 2021 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/science/archaeology-bogs-mummies.html "What The Ancient Bog Bodies Knew"], January 30, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/science/taxonomy-beetle-insects-hitler.html "What To Do With A Bug Named Hitler"], December 26, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref> who originated the archeological column "Lost and Found".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/01/science/ancient-romans-coin-drains.html "Ancient Romans Dropped Their Bling Down the Drain, Too"], May 1, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/06/science/ancient-egypt-birds.html "Put a Bird on It? Ancient Egypt Was Way Ahead of Us"], June 6, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref> He's a former ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' senior writer,<ref>[https://vault.si.com/author/franz-lidz "Classic Archives: Franz Lidz"], – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated700">[https://www.si.com/vault/2013/05/06/106319488/jason-collins "Jason Collins"], May 6, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'' columnist<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dr-nakamats-the-man-with-3300-patents-to-his-name-134571403/ "Dr. NakaMats, the Man With 3300 Patents to His Name"], December, 2012 - ''Smithsonian''</ref><ref>[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/behold-the-blobfish-180956967/#uUVYMJW2MmhTBjEM.99 "Behold The Blobfish"], November, 2015 - ''Smithsonian''</ref><ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/britain-lake-district-immortalized-beatrix-potter-beloved-landscape-180968736/ "Britain's Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?"], May, 2018 - ''Smithsonian''</ref> and a onetime vice president for the [[Detroit Pistons]].<ref>[http://i.cdn.turner.com/nba/nba/.element/media/2.0/teamsites/pistons/files/mg_1617_leadership.pdf "Detroit Pistons Media Guide: Executive Staff"], 2016–'17. (Free PDF download). Use search term "''Franz Lidz''"</ref><ref>[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/author/franz-lidz/?no-ist "Franz Lidz"], ''Smithsonian''</ref> His childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into [[Unstrung Heroes|a Hollywood film of the same title]] in 1995.<ref name="autogenerated771">[https://web.archive.org/web/20130926213633/http://articles.philly.com/1995-09-21/entertainment/25718431_1_unstrung-heroes-franz-lidz-andie-macdowell "Lost In Translation"], September 21, 1995 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref><ref name = nyt>[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/04/books/books-of-the-times-reality-was-relative-and-the-relatives-were-nuts.html "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts"], March 4, 1991 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/search?dropmab=true&query=Franz%20Lidz&sort=newest&types=article Search: Franz Lidz] - ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1995/09/03/movies/film-not-at-all-unstrung-and-calling-the-shots.html?pagewanted=all "Film: Unstrung And Calling The Shots"], September 3, 1995 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
⚫
''Fairway To Hell (2008)''
⚫
| spouse = Maggie Lidz (1976-present)
⚫
| children = Gogo, Daisy Daisy
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| occupation = [[Journalist]], memoirist
⚫
}}


⚫
== Early life ==
'''Franz Lidz''' is the author of the childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes'' ([[Random House]], 1991), the urban historical ''Ghosty Men: The Strange But True Story of the Collyer Brothers'' (Bloomsbury USA, 2003) and the golf memoir ''Fairway To Hell'' ([[ESPN Books]], 2008). He was a senior writer at ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' from 1980 to 2007, and a contributing editor at [[Condé Nast Publications|Conde Nast]] ''Portfolio'' (2007–2009). He is a correspondent for ''[[GQ]]'', ''S.I.'',<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1173389/index.htm He bristles at attention, whether it's for his bushy beard - 08.23.10 - SI Vault]</ref> ''[[Men's Journal]]'', ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'',<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208373915001854.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6 At the Kentucky Derby, Running for Roses, Not Speed Records - WSJ.com]</ref> ''[[The New York Observer]]'',<ref>[http://www.observer.com/2010/culture/virtuoso-canorama-gil-rogin-ran-si-its-peak-his-fiction-might-make-him-immortal The Virtuoso of the Canorama: Gil Rogin Ran SI at Its Peak, But His Fiction Might Make Him Immortal &#124; The New York Observer]</ref> ''[[AARP the Magazine]]'' and, since 1983, has written for the ''[[New York Times]]'' on travel, TV, film and theater.


Lidz was born in [[Manhattan]], to Sidney, a Jewish [[electronics engineer]] who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape),<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/28/obituaries/sidney-lidz.html "Sidney Lidz – Obituary"], July 28, 1981 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>{{YouTube|ofQ5X67p8E8|"Steelman Transitape portable reel-to-reel tape recorder"}}, 1959</ref> and Selma, a homemaker. His father gave him early exposure to authors like [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Harold Pinter]] and [[Eugène Ionesco]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/13/movies/the-new-season-film-beginning-at-the-ending-at-the-bates-motel.html?pagewanted=1&pagewanted=print "Beginning at the Ending at the Bates Motel"], September 13, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated702">[https://www.si.com/vault/1991/04/08/106782578/from-the-editor "From the Editor"], April 8, 1991</ref>
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== Early Life ==


At age nine, still named Stephen before later legally taking Franz as his first name, he moved to the [[Philadelphia]] suburbs.<ref name="autogenerated77">[https://web.archive.org/web/20141111014631/http://articles.philly.com/1991-04-07/news/25779974_1_unstrung-heroes-franz-lidz-brothers "A Writer's Relative Chaos: How Crazy Were Franz Lidz's Uncles? We're Glad You Asked That&nbsp;..."], April 7, 1991 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref><ref>[http://www.phillymag.com/news/2015/05/17/arn-tellem-franz-lidz-hall-fame/ "Arn Tellem and Franz Lidz Are Going to the Hall of Fame"], ''[[Philadelphia (magazine)|Philadelphia]]'', May 17, 2015</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150606154943/http://articles.philly.com/2015-05-27/sports/62677593_1_jason-collins-sports-illustrated-nba-all-stars "Franz Lidz & Arn Tellem entering Hall together"], ''[[Philadelphia Daily News]]'', May 27, 2015</ref> Lidz attended high school in [[Cheltenham, Pennsylvania|Cheltenham]]<ref name="autogenerated1">[https://www.si.com/vault/1982/05/10/628355/letter-from-the-publisher "Letter From The Publisher"] – May 10, 1982 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated3">[https://www.si.com/vault/1987/03/09/106777503/from-the-publisher "Letter From The Publisher"] – March 9, 1987 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> and college at [[Antioch College]],<ref name="autogenerated181">[https://www.si.com/vault/1984/03/26/569038/letter-from-the-publisher "Letter from the Publisher"] March 26, 1984 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> where he was a theater major.<ref name="autogenerated12">[https://www.baltimoresun.com/1991/02/19/lidz-weaves-a-tale-of-family-life-on-fringes/ "Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes"], February 9, 1991 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref>
Born in [[Manhattan]],<ref name="amazon1">[http://www.amazon.com/dp/158234311X Amazon.com: Ghosty Men: The Strange but True Story of the Collyer Brothers and My Uncle Arthur, New York's Greatest Hoarders (An Urban Historical) (9781582343112): Franz L...]</ref> Lidz inherited his absurdist sensibility from his father, Sidney, an electronics engineer who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape).<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1981/07/28/obituaries/sidney-lidz.html SIDNEY LIDZ - Obituary - NYTimes.com]</ref> Sidney would read to his young son from the works of [[Samuel Beckett]], [[Harold Pinter]] and [[Eugene Ionesco]]. In movie theaters, Sidney "couldn't resist untwisting plots as they unreeled," Lidz wrote. "Fifteen minutes before the end of a thriller, he'd announce the name of the murderer in a voice loud enough to be heard in the projection booth.... For him, the fun of watching films was in outsmarting the screenwriter and the director." Sidney would amuse himself by calling ahead to theaters and asking for a film's precise running time. "Then he would set the alarm on his wristwatch to go off during what he calculated would be pivotal scenes. In those days, when a movie had good buzz, it meant my father had seen it."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1998/09/13/movies/the-new-season-film-beginning-at-the-ending-at-the-bates-motel.html?pagewanted=1 THE NEW SEASON/FILM; Beginning at the Ending at the Bates Motel - New York Times]</ref> In second grade, Franz landed a part as a guard in a production of ''[[Adaptations of The Wizard of Oz|The Wizard of Oz]]''. His only line: "Don't listen to that man behind the curtain." The following year he delivered to his outrageously fortunate classmates [[Hamlet]]'s most celebrated soliloquy.<ref name="autogenerated1">[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121873/index.htm Letter From The Publisher - 03.26.84 - SI Vault]</ref>

At age nine, Lidz moved to the [[Philadelphia]] suburbs. Though an unexceptional athlete, the [[Little League]] second baseman nearly became one of ''S.I.''s [[Faces in the Crowd]] by making an unassisted triple-play. The magazine requested the youngster's photograph, but his terminally-ill mother never got around to mailing it in.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/franz_lidz/12/21/faces/index.html SI.com - Writers - Franz Lidz: How a little-league highlight almost landed me in SI - Thursday December 21, 2006 10:48AM]</ref> Lidz later went to [[Reggie Jackson]]'s high school (Cheltenham, Pa.) and [[Rod Serling]]'s college ([[Antioch College|Antioch]]),<ref name="autogenerated2">[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm Letter From The Publisher - 05.10.82 - SI Vault]</ref> where he was a theater major, touring the East Coast as a singing chain-fetishist biker in the rock musical ''Suzie Nation and the Yellow Peril''.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/franz_lidz/archive/index.html SI.com - Baseball - Writer Archive]</ref> "Nobody in the play had any idea what this thing was about," he recalled. "It was incomprehensible, and survived on the energy of the actors. I'd get bored reading somebody else's lines, so I started making up my own lines every night."'''<ref>[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-02-19/news/1991050047_1_franz-lidz-uncle-kris-dahl Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes - Baltimore Sun]</ref> '''In a grad school drama class he chose to interpret the tragic role of [[Othello]] dressed as a house painter, in coveralls and a spattered cap. The professor was nonplussed. "I wanted to play Othello not as the noble Moor," explained Lidz, "but as Benjamin Moore."<ref name="autogenerated1"/> [[Catherine O'Hara]], the Canadian comedienne, has said: "Franz is so interested in people that he can always find something new to say about them. He can remember every detail about everybody he meets. It's like he's starved for weird information. It makes him really good at improvising."<ref name="autogenerated1"/>'''
'''


== Career ==
== Career ==


Lidz was a novice reporter at the weekly ''Sanford Star'', where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats. He left Maine to become a crime reporter and write a column called "Insect Jazz" for an alternative newspaper in [[Baltimore]].<ref name="autogenerated14">[https://www.baltimoresun.com/1995/09/21/odds-are-these-guys-are-real-characters/ "Odds are, these guys are real characters"], September 21, 1995 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref> He later became an editor of ''[[Johns Hopkins University]] Magazine''.<ref>[https://www.baltimoresun.com/1991/01/23/redford-movie-may-be-filmed-locally/ "Redford movie may be filmed locally"], January 23, 1991 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref>
Lidz chose journalism because "I wanted to find an 'ism' that wouldn't become a 'wasm'."<ref name="autogenerated2">[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm Letter From The Publisher - 05.10.82 - SI Vault]</ref> He tried to gain a foothold in the world of traditional journalism. In vain. Asked to mail clippings to an editor at ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', he sent an envelope full of hair instead of stories he had written. A job offer wasn't forthcoming.<ref name="baltimoresun1995">[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-09-21/features/1995264017_1_lidz-daisy-daisy-unstrung-heroes/2 Odds are, these guys are real characters - Page 2 - Baltimore Sun]</ref> A graduate school professor had told Lidz, "It's fun to be a reporter. You get to wear a sweater all day." He took the advice and, 200 resumes later, found himself in [[Maine]], at the one newspaper that gave him an interview. For the next year, he was one of three novice reporters at the weekly ''Sanford Star'', where he wrote a column, covered the police and fire beats, and courted controversy (his first feature story was a profile of the town drunk). He banked occasional finders' fees from the ''[[National Enquirer]]'' for story ideas he'd pass along, e.g., WOMAN LOSES MEMORY FOR LAST 16 YRS. OF LIFE, FORGETS KIDS, and NORWAY BISHOP SAYS NUDISM MAKES FRIENDS, FIGHTS PROBLEMS.<ref name="autogenerated2"/>


In 1980, he joined the staff of ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'',<ref name="autogenerated36">[https://web.archive.org/web/20200818040952/https://vault.si.com/vault/1985/12/23/good-ol-charlie-schulz "Good Ol' Charlie Schulz"], December 23, 1985 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated89">[https://vault.si.com/vault/2018/04/23/pages-si "What is Jeopardy!?"], May 1, 1989 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated6">[http://www.si.com/vault/1990/12/10/123221/from-hair-to-eternity-you-cant-become-a-sports-immortal-says-don-king-without-folicles-of-fabulous-fecundity "From Hair To Eternity"], December 10, 1990 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated7">[https://web.archive.org/web/20200723064339/https://vault.si.com/vault/1992/05/18/meat-bomb-konishiki-the-quarter-ton-sumo-wrestler-from-hawaii-has-set-off-an-explosion-of-new-interest-and-controversy-in-the-hidebound-national-sport-of-japan "Meat Bomb"], May 18, 1992 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated65">[https://web.archive.org/web/20200922050851/https://vault.si.com/vault/1998/11/02/shes-got-balls-will-jeanie-buss-daughter-of-lakers-owner-jerry-buss-be-the-next-to-rule-her-fathers-sports-kingdom-or-will-one-of-her-brothers-rise-to-power-a-fractured-family-fable "She's Got Balls"], November 2, 1998 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> even though he had never read the magazine<ref name="philly1">[http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-blinq/franz.html "The Sport of Drunken Hairy Scots"], May 7, 2008 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life – a [[pigeon race]] in [[Shapleigh]], [[Maine]].<ref name="autogenerated101">[http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-09-2010/profile-gil-rogin.html "Gil Rogin Resurfaces"], September 24, 2010 – ''AARP: The Magazine''</ref><ref>[http://observer.com/2010/09/the-virtuoso-of-the-canorama-gil-rogin-ran-si-at-its-peak-but-his-fiction-might-make-him-immortal/ "The Virtuoso of the Canorama: Gil Rogin Ran SI at Its Peak, But His Fiction Might Make Him Immortal"], September 22, 2010 – ''The New York Observer''</ref><ref name="autogenerated702"/> Lidz remained on the writing staff for 27 years.<ref name="autogenerated128">[https://www.si.com/vault/2016/09/14/almost-famous "Almost Famous"], August 15, 2016 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> In 2007 he jumped to the short-lived business monthly ''Conde Nast Portfolio'', and then ''[[WSJ.]]'' magazine<ref>[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204449804577068891288906520.html "Upstairs, Downstairs and In Between"], December 1, 2011 – [[WSJ.]]</ref> before landing at ''Smithsonian'' in 2012. His first feature story in ''The New York Times'', on making the second descent of the [[Zambezi|Zambezi River]], appeared on January 30, 1983.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/30/travel/the-great-zambezi-river-expedition.html "The Great Zambezi River Expedition"], January 30, 1983 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
He left Maine to become a crime reporter and write a column called "Insect Jazz" for an alternative newspaper in [[Baltimore]].<ref>[http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3423 Punching the Clock: City Paper: The First Decade &#124; Baltimore City Paper]</ref> He wrote profiles on local characters: Larry Sanders, who owned a club on The Block and gave strippers names like Sheela the Peela and Rhonda Lay; Mr. Diz, Baltimore's unofficial greeter and emcee for Polock Johnny's annual sausage-eating contest; Theodore ''Balls'' Maggio, who made a living fetching lost balls out of the [[Jones Falls]];<ref name="baltimoresun1991">[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-02-19/news/1991050047_1_franz-lidz-uncle-kris-dahl/2 Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes - Page 2 - Baltimore Sun]</ref> and the East Baltimore bookmaker Louis Comi, who would trail after his five [[Doberman]]s with a mop, cleaning up as they urinated on his pool hall floor.<ref>[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-09-21/features/1995264017_1_lidz-daisy-daisy-unstrung-heroes Odds are, these guys are real characters - Baltimore Sun]</ref>
Among his most controversial features are essays on reappraising the [[dodo]];<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/20/science/archaeology-dodo-extinction.html "Who’s the Dodo Now? A Famously Extinct Bird, Reconsidered"], September 20, 2024 – ''The New York Times''</ref> reconsidering [[Neanderthals]];<ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/new-research-redefining-what-we-thought-about-neanderthals-180971918/ "What Do We Really Know About Neanderthals?"], May, 2019 ''Smithsonian''</ref> the effects of climate change on glacial archaeology;<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/science/climate-change-archaeology.html "As Earth Warms, Old Mayhem and Secrets Emerge From the Ice"], November 2, 2021 – ''The New York Times''</ref> the Pacific Northwest barred owl cull;<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/29/science/california-barred-spotted-owls.html They Shoot Owls in California, Don’t They?]", April 29, 2024 – ''New York Times''</ref> [[Hannibal]];<ref>[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-hannibal-crossed-the-alps-180963671/ "How (and Where) Did Hannibal Cross the Alps?"], July, 2017 - ''Smithsonian''</ref> the 2002 Paris-to-[[Dakar Rally]];<ref name="autogenerated1731">[http://www.si.com/vault/2002/01/21/317030/off-road-warriors-need-a-crash-course-in-misery-try-the-paris-to-dakar-rally-which-littered-the-north-african-desert-with-its-usual-quota-of-charred-vehicles-and-scarred-egos "Off-Road Warriors"], January 21, 2002 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> [[George Steinbrenner]] and the [[New York Yankees]]' line of succession;<ref>[http://upstart.bizjournals.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/sports/2007/08/02/Baseball-and-Steinbrenner.html?page=all "Baseball After The Boss"], August 2, 2007 – ''Conde Nast Portfolio''</ref><ref>[http://observer.com/2007/08/iportfolioi-diagnoses-steinbrenner-but-inew-york-posti-gives-second-opinion/ "Portfolio Diagnoses Steinbrenner, but New York Post gives a Second Opinion"], August 7, 2007 – ''New York Observer''</ref><ref>[https://www.aol.com/2010/07/13/franz-lidz-journalist-revealed-george-steinbrenner-ill/ "The Journalist Who Revealed How Ill George Steinbrenner Was"], July 13, 2007 – ''AOL''</ref><ref>[http://gothamist.com/2007/08/03/hows_the_boss_s.php "How's the Boss? Steinbrenner Looks Dreadful"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013160831/http://gothamist.com/2007/08/03/hows_the_boss_s.php |date=13 October 2008 }}, August 3, 2007 – ''Gothamist''</ref><ref>[http://www.bronxbanterblog.com/2008/12/15/the-nack-great-reporting-vivid-writing/ "The Nack: Great Reporting, Vivid Writing"], December 15, 2008 – Bronx Banter</ref> the hijinks of onetime [[Los Angeles Clippers]] owner [[Donald Sterling]];<ref name="autogenerated38">[https://www.si.com/vault/2000/04/17/278523/up-and-down-in-beverly-hills-eccentric-multimillionaire-donald-sterling-has-been-a-flaming-success-as-an-la-real-estate-mogul-and-a-dismal-failure-as-the-owner-of-the-clippers "Up and Down in Beverly Hills"], April 17, 2000 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>[http://www.suntimes.com/sports/basketball/bulls/27095763-452/donald-sterling-has-been-lost-in-another-century-for-some-time.html#.U1_-3YUlwvo "Donald Sterling Has Been Lost In Another Century For Some Time"], April 27, 2014 – ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]''</ref><ref name="autogenerated41">[https://www.si.com/nba/2014/04/30/donald-sterling-clippers-owner-nba-ban "Sterling's offensive behavior was no secret for years"], April 30, 2014 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> and a ''S.I.'' cover story with [[NBA]] player [[Jason Collins]] in which Collins became the first active male in one of the four major North American team sports to announce he was gay.<ref name="autogenerated18">[https://www.si.com/more-sports/2013/04/29/jason-collins-gay-nba-player "Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now"], April 29, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated23">[https://www.si.com/more-sports/2013/04/29/jason-collins-reveals-gay-nba-story The story behind Jason Collins' story: How it happened], April 29, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/30/business/media/how-sports-illustrated-broke-the-jason-collins-story.html "How Sports Illustrated Broke the Jason Collins Story"], April 29, 2013 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated67">[https://www.si.com/nba/2023/04/25/jason-collins-first-pro-league-male-athlete-gay-10-years-later-daily-cover "Jason Collins, 10 Years Later: Progress Made, but There's Work to Be Done for LGBTQ Athletes"], April 25, 2023 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>


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== Notable works ==
When Lidz came to ''S.I.'' for a job interview during the summer of 1980, he wore black [[Converse (shoe company)|Converse]] hightops, a wool sport coat and a hunted look.<ref name="autogenerated2"/> His résumé read like a picaresque novel. He'd been a DJ, a soda jerk, a substitute teacher, an improvisational actor, a wanderer through [[South America]], a cabbie in [[Boston]], a snail gunder in [[Philadelphia]] and a bus driver near Baltimore, which is where he met his wife, Maggie, when she was one of his passengers. ("She still owes me for the fare," he said.)<ref name="autogenerated2"/> Until he joined the staff of [[Sports Illustrated|SI]], he had never read the magazine<ref name="philly1">[http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-blinq/franz.html The Sport of Drunken Hairy Scots &#124; Blinq &#124; 05/07/2008]</ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life—a pigeon race in a small town in Maine.<ref name="autogenerated3">[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1139796/index.htm From The Editor - 04.08.91 - SI Vault]</ref> He got the job interview on the strength of a prickly profile of ''[[National Lampoon (magazine)|National Lampoon]]'' editor [[P. J. O'Rourke]] written for ''[[Johns Hopkins]]'' magazine,<ref>[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-01-23/features/1991023041_1_western-maryland-university-of-maryland-lonesome-dove Redford movie may be filmed locally - Baltimore Sun]</ref><ref name="philly1"/> where Lidz was briefly the associate editor.<ref>http://www.jstor.org/pss/2712766</ref> When he shuffled into ''S.I.'' Managing Editor Gil Rogin's office that steamy August day in 1980, Rogin was struggling to open a jar of orange juice. "Here, open this and you can have the job," he told Lidz.<ref>[http://www.aarp.org/entertainment/books/info-09-2010/profile-gil-rogin.print.html Gilbert Rogin's work gets re-released—30 years after he stopped writing cold. - AARP The Magazine]</ref> With a twist of the wrist, Lidz did so, then handed back the jar and asked, "When do I start?"<ref name="autogenerated2"/>


⚫
=== ''Unstrung Heroes'' ===
At the magazine, he wrote about a profusion of offbeat characters, including his Uncle Arthur,<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126884/index.htm My Uncle, The Collector: A Hobbyist On A Shoestring - 01.19.87 - SI Vault]</ref> who had amassed a phenomenal collection of discarded shoelaces. '"The sports angle,'" Lidz explained, '"was that most of them were laces from running shoes.'"<ref name="baltimoresun1991"/> Lidz's career highlights include the second descent of the [[Zambezi]] River; a globe-girdling road trip in search of sports on the equator;<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1012028/index.htm LIKE SPORTS EVERYWHERE, THE GAMES PLAYED ON THE EQUATOR - 02.20.98 - SI Vault]</ref> 10 days in dog-sledding school;<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1015789/index.htm If you do, you'll go nowhere at dogsledding school - 05.03.99 - SI Vault]</ref> a deeply-embedded look inside the mind games at the 1987 world chess championship between [[Gary Kasparov]] and [[Anatoly Karpov]] in [[Seville]], [[Spain]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1066814/1/index.htm Opposites Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov battle for - 12.07.87 - SI Vault]</ref> a two-week trek with environmentalist [[Juan Carlos Navarro (businessman)|Juan Carlos Navarro]] that retraced [[Vasco Núñez de Balboa]]'s 1513 route through the jungles of [[Panama]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1010901/index.htm The author slogged through Panama's jungle to the Pacific - 09.22.97 - SI Vault]</ref> a week-long verbal sparring session with [[Rocky Balboa]] ([[Sylvester Stallone]]) during the making of [[Rocky V]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1136225/index.htm As the bell sounds for Round 5 of the Rock opera, - 11.12.90 - SI Vault]</ref> three weeks in the [[Sahara]] covering the Paris-to-[[Dakar Rally]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/siadventure/11/off_road/ CNNSI.com - SI Adventure - Off-Road Warriors - Wednesday January 16, 2002 11:44 AM]</ref> a surreal voyage into the 5th Dimension with [[Darren Daulton]];<ref>[http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1oH6E9/sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/franz_lidz/02/16/darren/ SI.com - Writers - Franz Lidz: Daulton joins Fifth Dimension - Thursday... - StumbleUpon]</ref> a dispatch for [[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] from the 2004 mountain bike [[bog snorkelling]] championship in [[Llanwrtyd Wells]], [[Wales]];<ref>[http://www.slatetv.com/id/2104258/ The tiny town that's home to every sport you've never heard of. - By Franz Lidz - Slate Magazine]</ref> a cutting-edge story on the World Championships of [[Lawn mower racing]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1004206/index.htm For nearly 20 years, Brits have been taking to their lawn - 09.07.92 - SI Vault]</ref> a semester at a gladiator school<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1021623/index.htm Today's homework assignment: Chop off his head! - 02.01.01 - SI Vault]</ref> in [[Rome]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1021622/index.htm Gladiators were sport's first superstars, providing - 02.01.01 - SI Vault]</ref> a [[Hollywood]] tête-à-tête with [[Johnny Depp]];<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/01/movies/film-what-you-see-is-not-what-you-ll-get.html?pagewanted=all FILM; What You See Is Not What You'll Get - New York Times]</ref> a report from the semi-lethal [[Royal Shrovetide Football]] game—a 12th century "town maul meeting" in [[Derbyshire]], [[England]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1025155/index.htm Once a year a sleepy Derbyshire town awakens to two days - 03.18.02 - SI Vault]</ref> a report from the totally-lethal [[Isle of Man TT]] race;<ref>[http://ijms.nova.edu/November2007TT/IJMS_Artcl.Vaukins.html IJMS / Vaukins / The Isle of Man TT Races: Politics, Economics and National Identity]</ref> a 10-page [[Arthur Conan Doyle]]ish rumination on ''[[Jeopardy!]]'';<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068347/index.htm TELEVISION FOR $1,000: THE WORLD'S TOUGHEST GAME SHOW - 05.01.89 - SI Vault]</ref> an extended road trip from [[Osaka]] to [[Honolulu]] with 630-pound<ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2110026/pagenum/all/ Sumo wrestlers fatten up on chankonabe. - By Franz Lidz - Slate Magazine]</ref> [[sumo]] wrestler [[Konishiki Yasokichi]] - otherwise known as Meat Bomb;<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1003795/index.htm KONISHIKI, THE QUARTER-TON SUMO WRESTLER FROM HAWAII, HAS - 05.18.92 - SI Vault]</ref> a vodka-fueled battle for the [[ping-pong]] championship of Lesko, [[Poland]];<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1064443/index.htm The Battle For Comrade Slinky Was Waged On A Polish - 01.13.86 - SI Vault]</ref> and a lengthy powwow with [[Don King]] that resulted in a 12-page meditation on the boxing promoter's hair.<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1136087/1/index.htm YOU CAN'T BECOME A SPORTS IMMORTAL, SAYS DON KING, - 12.10.90 - SI Vault]</ref> His essay on [[George Steinbrenner]] and the [[New York Yankees]]' line of succession<ref>[http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/sports/2007/08/02/Baseball-and-Steinbrenner/ Baseball And Steinbrenner - Culture Lifestyle - Portfolio.com]</ref> was called the "scoop of the year" in the 2008 [[Houghton-Mifflin]] collection ''[[The Best American Sports Writing]]''.<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001TODOCC Amazon.com: The Best American Sports Writing 2008 (9781615580194): Glenn Stout, William Nack: Books: Reviews, Prices & more]</ref>


''Unstrung Heroes'' is about Lidz's childhood, with his mother, father and his dad's four older brothers.<ref name="autogenerated702"/><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/30/movies/summer-films-creature-features-the-ongoing-adventures-of-moose-and-squirrel.html "Summer Films: Creature Features; The Ongoing Adventures of Moose and Squirrel"], April 20, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated213">[https://www.si.com/vault/issue/702993/6/2 "To Our Readers"], September 25, 1995 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> He had previously written about two of the uncles in'' Sports Illustrated''.<ref name="autogenerated13">[https://www.si.com/vault/1987/01/19/113671/my-uncle-the-collector-a-hobbyist-on-a-shoestring "My Uncle, The Collector: A Hobbyist on a Shoestring"], January 25, 1987 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated19">[https://www.si.com/vault/1982/12/20/625745/uncle-harry-never-lost-a-fight-but-he-never-really-fought-one-either "Uncle Harry Never Lost A Fight But He Never Really Fought One, Either"], December 20, 1982 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>
⚫
== Notable Works ==
=== ''Unstrung Heroes, The Book'' ===


⚫
In his review of ''Unstrung Heroes'' in ''The New York Times'', [[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] called the memoir "unusual and affecting&nbsp;... a melancholy, funny book, a loony tune played with touching disharmony on mournful woodwinds and a noisy klaxon".<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/04/books/books-of-the-times-reality-was-relative-and-the-relatives-were-nuts.html?pagewanted=1&pagewanted=print "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts"], March 4, 1991 – ''The New York Times''</ref> [[Jonathan Kirsch]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' likened the memoir to a "miniature ''[[Brothers Karamazov]]''. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed."<ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-02-20-vw-1487-story.html "The Unlikely Heroics of ''Unstrung Heroes''"], February 20, 1991 – ''[[Los Angeles Times]]''</ref> ''[[The Village Voice]]'' called ''Unstrung Heroes'': "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."<ref>[https://www.amazon.com/dp/158234311X "Unstrung Heroes"], February, 1991 – ''Random House''</ref>
''Unstrung Heroes'' chronicles his improbable childhood with Sidney Lidz and his four "impossible" brothers. Sidney was the youngest and relatively sanest. Neighbors indulged him as "Crazy Sid, the mildly crackpot inventor." As for his brothers, Lidz wrote: "My uncles were smelly, screwy, astonishingly scrawny old guys who had abandoned everyday life.... They were happy to be outsiders; they never had to make the same compromises true adults did; they remained innocent and faithful to their own loopy dreams." Lidz's four serenely wacky uncles, the surreal Lidz Brothers, none of whom resemble Auntie Mame in any way, are mostly reminiscent of the inspired, raffish Ritz Brothers in their heyday. There is Uncle Leo, poetaster and a self-proclaimed literary genius who's sent to an asylum after declaring himself the Messiah of [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]]; Uncle Danny, a paranoid of unparalleled persistence -- during a ballgame at Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle hits a foul ball that landed near young Franz and a terrified Danny, scrambles to hide under his seat, convinced that The Mick is trying to assassinate him; Uncle Harry, a veteran of the [[Abraham Lincoln Brigade]],<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/08/classified/paid-notice-deaths-lidz-harry-h.html?pagewanted=1 Paid Notice: Deaths LIDZ, HARRY H. - New York Times]</ref> sincerely committed to the belief that he's the world boxing champion in nine different weight divisions;<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126257/index.htm Uncle Harry Never Lost A Fight But He Never Really Fought - 12.20.82 - SI Vault]</ref> and Uncle Arthur, the proud possessor of what is very likely the world's largest collection of discarded shoelaces.<ref name="autogenerated3"/> Leo Lidz may speak for all these flipped Lidz tummlers when he tells his young nephew, "I'm not all I'm cracked up to be."<ref name="baltimoresun1995"/> "Looking back now," Lidz wrote, "I suppose there came a moment when I adopted Uncle Harry's style of evasion, which was to ignore reality if it became too painful. This worked for me when we moved in with my stepmother, Shirley: The most effective way to irritate her was to ignore her. It came to me sometime during my 16th year that my uncles' goofy, misdirectional approach to life was the direct opposite of Shirley's corseted suburbanism."


In 1995, ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into [[Unstrung Heroes|a film of the same title]].<ref name="autogenerated771"/> The setting was switched from [[New York City]] to [[Southern California]], and the four crazy uncles were reduced to an eccentric odd couple. Asked what he thought of the script, Lidz said: "It's very neatly typed".<ref>[http://ew.com/article/1995/09/22/star-and-author-unstrung-heroes/ "The star and author of 'Unstrung Heroes'"], September 22, 1995 – ''Entertainment Weekly''</ref> He was unhappy with the adaptation, but was prevented by his contract from publicly criticizing it. "My initial fear was that [[Disney]] would turn my uncles into [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)#Cast|Grumpy]] and [[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937 film)#Cast|Dopey]]", he told ''[[New York (magazine)|New York]]'' magazine. "I never imagined my life could be turned into [[Old Yeller]]."<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|author=Nancy Jo Sales|title=Undone Heroes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58|date=18 September 1995|publisher=New York Media, LLC|page=58}}</ref> In a later essay for ''The New York Times'', he said that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of 'Old Movie Disease'. "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy."<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/movies/film-in-a-higher-state-of-being-that-is-dying.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm&pagewanted=print "In a Higher State of Being (That Is, Dying)"], January 10, 1999 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
⚫
In his review of ''Unstrung Heroes'' in the ''New York Times'', [[Christopher Lehmann-Haupt]] called the memoir "unusual and affecting... a melancholy, funny book, a loony tune played with touching disharmony on mournful woodwinds and a noisy klaxon."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/04/books/books-of-the-times-reality-was-relative-and-the-relatives-were-nuts.html?pagewanted=1 Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts - New York Times]</ref>

[[Jonathan Kirsch]] of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' likened the memoir to a "miniature ''[[Brothers Karamazov]]''. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed."<ref>http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61077155.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Feb+20%2C+1991&author=JONATHAN+KIRSCH&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&edition=&startpage=6&desc=BOOK+REVIEW+The+Unlikely+Heroics+of+Unstrung+Uncles+UNSTRUNG+HEROES+My+Improbable+Life+With+Four+Impossible+Uncles+by+Franz+Lidz+Random+House%2418.95%2C+189+pages {{dead link|date=October 2010}}</ref>

In ''[[The Village Voice]]'', Laurie Stone called ''Unstrung Heroes'': "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."<ref name="amazon1"/>

Of the hardback edition, Franz Lidz once said: "I think of the first editions as my children, because I know where every one of them is."<ref name="autogenerated4">[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007145/index.htm To Our Readers - 09.25.95 - SI Vault]</ref>

=== ''Unstrung Heroes, The Film'' ===

In 1995, the unsentimental ''Unstrung Heroes'' was turned into a sentimental film starring [[John Turturro]] and [[Andie MacDowell]] as Sidney and Selma Lidz, and directed by [[Diane Keaton]]. The setting was switched from New York to Southern California, and the four mad uncles were reduced to an eccentric Odd Couple. Lidz's contract forbade him to slam [[Unstrung Heroes]], but he did say: '"The script was very neatly typed.'"<ref>[http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,298784,00.html In The Name Of The Father &#124; Movies &#124; Ew.Com]</ref> In a 1995 ''[[New York magazine]]'' profile that ran before the film's release, he confessed, "My initial fear was that [[Disney]] would turn my uncles into Grumpy and Dopey. I never imagined that my life could be turned into ''[[Old Yeller]]''."<ref>http://books.google.com/books?id=6-QCAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA58&lpg=PA58&dq=unstrung+heroes+hebrew&source=bl&ots=WpZ-YXJ4Rs&sig=6IHxhuVT5w_qiMXUhGeG4JwsrwM&hl=en&ei=3dB6S6z9LdGk8AaekqieCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CCwQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=&f=false</ref> Four years later in an essay for the ''New York Times'', he cracked that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of Old Movie Disease: "The way Disney killed off my mother -- after fixing pancakes, she praises her kids, plants a perversely passionate kiss on her husband's lips and, to soulful strains of ''[[You Are My Sunshine]],'' drifts off to die in a comfy armchair -- reminded me of [[Mad magazine]]'s send-up of ''[[Love Story]].''" He added, "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/10/movies/film-in-a-higher-state-of-being-that-is-dying.html?pagewanted=1 FILM; In a Higher State of Being (That Is, Dying) - New York Times]</ref>


=== ''Ghosty Men'' ===
=== ''Ghosty Men'' ===


''Ghosty Men'' (2003) is the story of the [[Collyer brothers]]. Lidz has said that he was inspired by the real-life cautionary tales that his father told him, the most macabre of which was the story of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of [[Harlem]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/nyregion/the-paper-chase.html?pagewanted=1&pagewanted=all "The Paper Chase"], October 26, 2003 – ''The New York Times''</ref> The book also recounts the parallel life of Arthur Lidz,<ref>[http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/a-trashy-read-hoarding-hermits-a-typist-s-true-tale-1.329120 "A Trashy Read / Hoarding hermits? A typist's true tale"], November 2, 2003 – ''Newsday''</ref> the hermit uncle of ''Unstrung Heroes'', who grew up near the Collyer mansion.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20141218184926/http://articles.philly.com/2004-05-16/news/25382681_1_impossible-uncles-unstrung-heroes-franz-lidz "Author delves into his inner hoarder His eccentric uncle led him to write about the Collyer brothers"], May 16, 2004 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref>
Homer and Langley Collyer moved into their handsome brownstone in white, upper-class Harlem in 1909. By 1947, however, when the fire department was forced to lower Homer's dead body by rope out of the house he hadn't left in nearly a decade, the neighborhood had degentrified, and the Collyers' home had become a sealed fortress of junk. Dedicated to preserving the past, the brothers had held on to virtually everything they ever had touched.<ref name="barnesandnoble1">[http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ghosty-Men/Franz-Lidz/e/9781582343112/ Ghosty Men, Franz Lidz, Book - Barnes & Noble]</ref>

''Ghosty Men'', Lidz wrote, was inspired by the real-life cautionary tales that his father told him: "At bedtime, I would listen raptly to his urban horror stories, tales that filled the dark with chimera, bogeymen, golems. The most macabre was the tale of the [[Collyer brothers]], the hermit hoarders of [[Harlem]]."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/nyregion/the-paper-chase.html?pagewanted=1 The Paper Chase - New York Times]</ref> Besides deconstructing the brothers' descent into their own world of filth and isolation, Lidz shares recollections of his Uncle Arthur, an eccentric hoarder who was a featured character in ''Unstrung Heroes''. Arthur amassed everything from magazines to parking tickets plucked off windshields, and lived "nested inside his walls of junk."<ref name="amazon1"/> He was so habitual a hoarder that Lidz's mother used to call him the lost Collyer brother. "Small, bent and eternally boyish, Uncle Arthur dresses in layers of [[Salvation Army]] overcoats kept closed with rusty safety pins," Lidz wrote. "Like a Beckett tramp, he holds his pants up with bits of rope. Uncle Arthur was a 19-year-old novice collector when he moved to a tiny tenement apartment in Harlem, only three blocks from the Collyer homestead. He already knew that Homer and Langley were the preeminent junk collectors. '"I'd walk by their house and wonder what of value did they have," he said. '"You got to have brains to collect that much stuff. I always wanted to get in touch with them. I always wanted to get in touch with anybody who collected as much as I did. They collected more. They had their junk up to the windows. I didn't have that much." Uncle Arthur does, however, have quite lot, and he has turned squalor into an art form."<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/nyregion/the-paper-chase.html?pagewanted=3 The Paper Chase - New York Times]</ref>

⚫
''[[Washington Post]]'' critic Adam Bernstein observed: "''Ghosty Men'' has the breezy vibrancy of a magazine story. Like ''Unstrung Heroes'', the new book has to its advantage a sympathy for the forgotten and keen observations about what consoles broken souls. The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."<ref>http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/520943591.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+4%2C+2004&author=Pack+Rats&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.14&desc=If+anything+should+inspire+s+... {{dead link|date=October 2010}}</ref>

[[Luc Sante]], author of ''Low Life'', wrote: "Franz Lidz's ''Ghosty Men'' is funny and moving and full of odd details, and it will make you clean up your room."<ref name="barnesandnoble1"/>


⚫
In his review for ''[[The Washington Post]]'', Adam Bernstein wrote, "The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121026132000/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost/access/520943591.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jan+4,+2004&author=Pack+Rats&pub=The+Washington+Post&edition=&startpage=T.14&desc=If+anything+should+inspire+s+ "If Anything Should Inspire&nbsp;..."], January 4, 2004 – ''[[The Washington Post]]''</ref>
=== ''Fairway To Hell'' ===


⚫
=== ''Fairway to Hell'' ===
In this wildly comic memoir, Lidz went in search of golf's real soul and takes a globe-hopping and wholly serendipitous journey to the margins of that ancient game. He chronicled his adventures on the links with [[Bill Murray]] and the drunken heavy metal band [[Judas Priest]], and a [[New England]] farmer who raises [[llamas]] as caddies. He reported from a [[Zambia]] course at which 15 holes are guarded by live [[crocodiles]], the Fattie Open - where you're penalized if you weigh under 250&nbsp;pounds, and a pitch-and-putt tournament at a [[Florida]] [[nudist colony]].<ref>[http://www.espnbooks.com/book.cgi?id=28 ESPN Books - Fairway to Hell - Franz Lidz - 978-1-933-06043-9]</ref> The author encountered a burrowing [[botfly]] on a course in [[Panama]] and engaged in an increasingly preposterous e-mail exchange with a Nigerian scam artist about bank accounts and rocket golf carts.<ref name="amazon2">[http://www.amazon.com/dp/1933060433 Amazon.com: Fairway to Hell: Around the World in 18 Holes (9781933060439): Franz Lidz: Books: Reviews, Prices & more]</ref> "Here, there and everywhere body parts – normally
concealed from public view -- bobbed, swayed and quivered," Lidz wrote of the nudist colony. "Some breasts were the size of [[Pinnacles]]; others hung like head covers stuffed with bricks. Some men had chest hair thicker than [[muskrat]] pelts; some women had hair on their heads, but nowhere else. A few of the ladies wore day dresses, untied and unbuttoned. A few of the gents wore bulging T-shirts from which drooped what looked to be a Thanksgiving turkey's giblets. No woman carried a purse, though one man sported a [[colostomy bag]]. In case you were wondering, his bag didn't match his shoes."<ref name="amazon2"/>


''Fairway to Hell'' is a 2008 memoir centering on Lidz' unusual golfing experiences: encountering nudists, llama caddies<ref name="philly1"/> and celebrities like the heavy metal band [[Judas Priest]].<ref>[http://olympics.si.com/vault/1986/10/27/106777130/heavy-metal-rockers-find-peace-and-quietand-rock-fanson-the-links "Heavy Metal Rockers Find Peace And Quiet—and Rock Fans—on The Links"], November 27, 1986 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>[http://www.espnbooks.com/book.cgi?id=28 "Fairway to Hell"], April, 2008 – ''ESPN''</ref> [[Bill Littlefield]] reviewed the book on the [[National Public Radio]] show ''[[Only A Game]]'', saying "His estimable wit is also evident in ''Fairway To Hell''."<ref>[http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2008/05/30/fairway-to-hell "Books In Review"], May 30, 2008 – ''Only A Game, NPR''</ref>
On the [[National Public Radio]] show ''[[Only A Game]]'', host [[Bill Littlefield]] remarked: "Nobody who read ''Sports Illustrated'' during Franz Lidz’s employment there needs to be told that his writing is funny. Happily, his estimable wit is also evident in ''Fairway To Hell''."


== Collaborations ==
== Collaborations ==


Lidz has written numerous essays for [[The New York Times]] with novelist and former [[Sports Illustrated]] colleague [[Steve Rushin]]. Three of them appear under the title ''Piscopo Agonistes'' in the 2000 collection ''[[Mirth of a Nation]]: The Best Contemporary Humor''.<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/dp/1567318339 Amazon.com: Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor (9781567318333): Michael J. Rosen: Books: Reviews, Prices & more]</ref>
Lidz has written numerous essays for ''[[The New York Times]]'' with novelist and former ''[[Sports Illustrated]]'' colleague [[Steve Rushin]].<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1998/11/15/movies/holiday-films-we-know-what-you-ll-see-next-summer.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm&pagewanted=print "We Know What You'll See Next Summer&nbsp;..."], November 15, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/30/arts/here-a-comic-genius-there-a-comic-genius.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm&pagewanted=print "Here A Comic Genius, There A Comic Genius"], January 30, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/05/movies/how-to-tell-a-bad-movie-from-a-truly-bad-movie.html?pagewanted=all "How to Tell a Bad Movie From a Truly Bad Movie"], August 5, 2001 – ''The New York Times''</ref> Three of them appear under the title ''Piscopo Agonistes'' in the 2000 collection ''Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor''.


Lidz has been a commentator for ''[[Morning Edition]]'' on [[NPR]],<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19981119&id=EDodAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BqYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2314,3343451 "News Briefs"], November 19, 1998 – ''The Tuscaloosa News''</ref> and was a guest film critic on the syndicated ''[[Siskel & Ebert]]'', following [[Gene Siskel]]'s passing. The segment did not air.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/16/movies/film-a-shot-at-thumb-wrestling-with-roger.html?pagewanted=print "A Shot at Thumb-Wrestling With Roger"], April 16, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref> He also appeared on [[David Letterman]]'s [[The Late Show with David Letterman|show]].<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
⚫
== Personal Life ==


⚫
== Personal life ==
Lidz lives on a six-acre farm in [[Pennsylvania]]'s Brandywine Valley with two llamas (Ogar and Edgar), two [[Great Pyrenees]] (Ella and Errol), two cats (Yojimbo and Sanjuro), three dozen chickens and guinea fowl (don't ask), two daughters (Gogo<ref>[http://travel.latimes.com/articles/la-tr-turkeygogo21nov21 Where the wild things are - inside the tent - Travel - LATimes.com]</ref> and Daisy Daisy<ref>[http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1029006/index.htm Introducing Miss Daisy - 06.23.03 - SI Vault]</ref>) and one wife (Maggie), an author<ref>[http://www.amazon.com/dp/0926494694 Amazon.com: The du Ponts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine (9780926494695): Maggie Lidz: Books]</ref> and the historian at the [[Winterthur Museum]] in [[Delaware]]. "We must be the only household in the world that subscribes to ''Llama'', ''Poultry News'', ''Sumo World'' and ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''," Lidz has said.<ref name="autogenerated4"/> On his first date with Maggie he realized that one week earlier her father, journalist Gerald Renner,<ref>[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1310&dat=19970330&id=pnQVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gOsDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6816,7891345 Gerald Renner]</ref> had picked him up hitchhiking on [[Interstate 95]]. Lidz, then in grad school, and Maggie married seven months later—the day after her high school graduation. For years afterward, Maggie's three younger sisters would greet their dad <ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/24/AR2007102402389.html Gerald A. Renner; Religion Journalist - washingtonpost.com]</ref> when he got home by asking: "Daddy, did you pick us up a hitchhiker?" Several decades "and two beautiful daughters later, I haven't met anyone else I'd rather be around," wrote Lidz. "Maggie still surprises me, still shakes me out of complacency, still makes me laugh. She's not sentimental; she sensible, decent, and much smarter than me. She showed me how to feel comfortable in my own skin, to embrace ordinary happiness. Which is pretty extraordinary."<ref>[http://www.oprah.com/relationships/Finding-the-One-By-Chance Finding the One By Chance - Oprah.com]</ref> Gogo and Daisy Daisy (Didi)<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/fashion/weddings/25LIDZ.html Daisy Lidz, Thor Ritz - NYTimes.com]</ref> were named after the protagonists in [[Waiting for Godot]]. "I always wanted to play the title character," he once said, "but I would have spent the whole night in the wings."<ref name="autogenerated1"/>


Lidz lives in [[Ojai, California]]<ref>[https://www.ojaihub.com/the-uses-of-irreverence/ "The Uses of Irreverence"], Fall, 2020 - ''Ojai Quarterly'', pgs. 38-41</ref> with his wife, Maggie, an author and onetime historian at the [[Winterthur Museum]] in [[Delaware]].<ref>[https://mobile.nytimes.com/2010/02/21/movies/21barnes.html Requiem For A Jumble of Artworks], January 21, 2010- ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>[http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/02/18/costumes_of_downton_abbey_at_henry_francis_du_pont_s_winterthur_museum_garden.html "The Amazing Costumes of Downton Abbey"], February 18, 2014- ''Slate''</ref><ref>[http://www.delawaretoday.com/core/pagetools.php?url=/Delaware-Today/December-2009/The-Du-PontsHouses-and-Gardens-in-the-Brandywine/&mode=printhe "The duPonts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine"], December, 2009 ''Delaware Today''</ref><ref>[http://www.oprah.com/relationships/finding-the-one-by-chance "Meeting Maggie"], February, 2009 ''[[O, The Oprah Magazine]]''</ref> They have two daughters.<ref name="autogenerated118">[https://vault.si.com/vault/2003/06/23/introducing-miss-daisy "Introducing Miss Daisy"], June 23, 2003 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-turkeygogo21nov21-story.html "Where the wild things are – inside the tent"], November 21, 2004 ''Los Angeles Times''</ref><ref>[http://www.newsweek.com/authors/gogo-lidz Gogo Lidz: Staff Writer], ''Newsweek''</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/fashion/weddings/25LIDZ.html "Daisy Lidz, Thor Ritz"], July 23, 2010 – ''The New York Times''</ref>
Lidz has been a commentator for [[Morning Edition]] on NPR,<ref>http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19981119&id=EDodAAAAIBAJ&sjid=BqYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2314,3343451</ref> and a guest film critic on [[Roger Ebert]]'s syndicated TV show.<ref>[http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/16/movies/film-a-shot-at-thumb-wrestling-with-roger.html FILM; A Shot at Thumb-Wrestling With Roger - New York Times]</ref> He insists that his dream double-play combination is Ginsberg to Whitman to Pound because they represent "true poetry in motion."<ref name="autogenerated3"/> Inspired by the advice of [[Ezra Pound]] scholar [[Hugh Kenner]] ("You have an obligation to visit the great men of your time"), Lidz once made a pilgrimage to [[Gore Vidal]]'s villa in [[Ravello]], [[Italy]], inveigling his way in with the line: "I'm on a world tour of the homes of everyone I've ever seen on [[The Merv Griffin Show]]." He has appeared on [[David Letterman]]'s show with his pet parrots Peter Rabbit and Mrs. Falbo, unsettling the host with the observation: "Peter speaks 16 bird dialects, including loon. He's learning Waring Blender, but I can't let him get too close to ours. He thinks it's a [[Jacuzzi]]."


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
*http://www.portfolio.com/contributors/Franz-Lidz
* http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/writers/franz_lidz/archive/index.html
* http://www.gq.com/contributors/frank-lidz
* http://www.mensjournal.com/the-shark-is-back
* http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?query=Lidz&d=&o=&v=&c=&n=10&dp=0&daterange=period&srcht=a&year1=1981&mon1=01&day1=01&year2=2010&mon2=02&day2=04&bylquery=Franz%20Lidz&sort=oldest


{{Authority control}}
<references/>


{{DEFAULTSORT:Lidz, Franz}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lidz, Franz}}
[[Category:American memoirists]]
[[Category:21st-century American novelists]]
[[Category:American novelists]]
[[Category:21st-century American memoirists]]
[[Category:American sportswriters]]
[[Category:American male novelists]]
[[Category:Antioch College alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1951 births]]
[[Category:People from Sanford, Maine]]
[[Category:People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Smithsonian (magazine) people]]
[[Category:Journalists from New York City]]
[[Category:21st-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Novelists from New York (state)]]
[[Category:American male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:Sportswriters from New York (state)]]
[[Category:Sportspeople from York County, Maine]]

Latest revision as of 12:53, 30 December 2024

Franz Lidz
BornFranz Ira Lidz
(1951-09-24) September 24, 1951 (age 73)
New York City, U.S.
Occupation
  • Journalist
  • memoirist
  • American professional basketball executive
Alma materAntioch College
Notable worksUnstrung Heroes (1991)
Ghosty Men (2003)
Fairway To Hell (2008)
SpouseMaggie Lidz (1976–present)
ChildrenGogo, Daisy

Franz Lidz (born September 24, 1951) is an American writer, journalist and pro basketball executive.

A New York Times archaeology, science and film essayist,[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] who originated the archeological column "Lost and Found".[9][10] He's a former Sports Illustrated senior writer,[11][12]Smithsonian columnist[13][14][15] and a onetime vice president for the Detroit Pistons.[16][17] His childhood memoir Unstrung Heroes was adapted into a Hollywood film of the same title in 1995.[18][19][20][21]

Early life

[edit]

Lidz was born in Manhattan, to Sidney, a Jewish electronics engineer who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape),[22][23] and Selma, a homemaker. His father gave him early exposure to authors like Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Eugène Ionesco.[24][25]

At age nine, still named Stephen before later legally taking Franz as his first name, he moved to the Philadelphia suburbs.[26][27][28] Lidz attended high school in Cheltenham[29][30] and college at Antioch College,[31] where he was a theater major.[32]

Career

[edit]

Lidz was a novice reporter at the weekly Sanford Star, where he wrote a column and covered police and fire beats. He left Maine to become a crime reporter and write a column called "Insect Jazz" for an alternative newspaper in Baltimore.[33] He later became an editor of Johns Hopkins University Magazine.[34]

In 1980, he joined the staff of Sports Illustrated,[35][36][37][38][39] even though he had never read the magazine[40] and had covered only one sporting event in his life – a pigeon race in Shapleigh, Maine.[41][42][25] Lidz remained on the writing staff for 27 years.[43] In 2007 he jumped to the short-lived business monthly Conde Nast Portfolio, and then WSJ. magazine[44] before landing at Smithsonian in 2012. His first feature story in The New York Times, on making the second descent of the Zambezi River, appeared on January 30, 1983.[45]

Among his most controversial features are essays on reappraising the dodo;[46] reconsidering Neanderthals;[47] the effects of climate change on glacial archaeology;[48] the Pacific Northwest barred owl cull;[49] Hannibal;[50] the 2002 Paris-to-Dakar Rally;[51] George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees' line of succession;[52][53][54][55][56] the hijinks of onetime Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling;[57][58][59] and a S.I. cover story with NBA player Jason Collins in which Collins became the first active male in one of the four major North American team sports to announce he was gay.[60][61][62][63]

Notable works

[edit]

Unstrung Heroes

[edit]

Unstrung Heroes is about Lidz's childhood, with his mother, father and his dad's four older brothers.[25][64][65] He had previously written about two of the uncles in Sports Illustrated.[66][67]

In his review of Unstrung Heroes in The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt called the memoir "unusual and affecting ... a melancholy, funny book, a loony tune played with touching disharmony on mournful woodwinds and a noisy klaxon".[68] Jonathan Kirsch of the Los Angeles Times likened the memoir to a "miniature Brothers Karamazov. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed."[69] The Village Voice called Unstrung Heroes: "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."[70]

In 1995, Unstrung Heroes was adapted into a film of the same title.[18] The setting was switched from New York City to Southern California, and the four crazy uncles were reduced to an eccentric odd couple. Asked what he thought of the script, Lidz said: "It's very neatly typed".[71] He was unhappy with the adaptation, but was prevented by his contract from publicly criticizing it. "My initial fear was that Disney would turn my uncles into Grumpy and Dopey", he told New York magazine. "I never imagined my life could be turned into Old Yeller."[72] In a later essay for The New York Times, he said that the cinematic Selma had died not of cancer, but of 'Old Movie Disease'. "Someday somebody may find a cure for cancer, but the terminal sappiness of cancer movies is probably beyond remedy."[73]

Ghosty Men

[edit]

Ghosty Men (2003) is the story of the Collyer brothers. Lidz has said that he was inspired by the real-life cautionary tales that his father told him, the most macabre of which was the story of the Collyer brothers, the hermit hoarders of Harlem.[74] The book also recounts the parallel life of Arthur Lidz,[75] the hermit uncle of Unstrung Heroes, who grew up near the Collyer mansion.[76]

In his review for The Washington Post, Adam Bernstein wrote, "The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."[77]

Fairway to Hell

[edit]

Fairway to Hell is a 2008 memoir centering on Lidz' unusual golfing experiences: encountering nudists, llama caddies[40] and celebrities like the heavy metal band Judas Priest.[78][79] Bill Littlefield reviewed the book on the National Public Radio show Only A Game, saying "His estimable wit is also evident in Fairway To Hell."[80]

Collaborations

[edit]

Lidz has written numerous essays for The New York Times with novelist and former Sports Illustrated colleague Steve Rushin.[81][82][83] Three of them appear under the title Piscopo Agonistes in the 2000 collection Mirth of a Nation: The Best Contemporary Humor.

Lidz has been a commentator for Morning Edition on NPR,[84] and was a guest film critic on the syndicated Siskel & Ebert, following Gene Siskel's passing. The segment did not air.[85] He also appeared on David Letterman's show.[29]

Personal life

[edit]

Lidz lives in Ojai, California[86] with his wife, Maggie, an author and onetime historian at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware.[87][88][89][90] They have two daughters.[91][92][93][94]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Film; Sorry, Uma, There's Only One Emma", August 9, 1998 – The New York Times
  2. ^ "Film; The Scenery, Though, He Won't Chew", September 29, 2002 – The New York Times
  3. ^ "Biblical Adversity in a '60s Suburb", September 23, 2009 – The New York Times
  4. ^ "Here Lies the Skull of Pliny the Elder, Maybe", February 14, 2020 – The New York Times
  5. ^ "At the Sourdough Library, With Some Very Old Mothers", April 11, 2020 – The New York Times
  6. ^ "She Fell Nearly Two Miles And Walked Away", June 18, 2021 – The New York Times
  7. ^ "What The Ancient Bog Bodies Knew", January 30, 2023 – The New York Times
  8. ^ "What To Do With A Bug Named Hitler", December 26, 2023 – The New York Times
  9. ^ "Ancient Romans Dropped Their Bling Down the Drain, Too", May 1, 2023 – The New York Times
  10. ^ "Put a Bird on It? Ancient Egypt Was Way Ahead of Us", June 6, 2023 – The New York Times
  11. ^ "Classic Archives: Franz Lidz", – Sports Illustrated
  12. ^ "Jason Collins", May 6, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
  13. ^ "Dr. NakaMats, the Man With 3300 Patents to His Name", December, 2012 - Smithsonian
  14. ^ "Behold The Blobfish", November, 2015 - Smithsonian
  15. ^ "Britain's Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?", May, 2018 - Smithsonian
  16. ^ "Detroit Pistons Media Guide: Executive Staff", 2016–'17. (Free PDF download). Use search term "Franz Lidz"
  17. ^ "Franz Lidz", Smithsonian
  18. ^ a b "Lost In Translation", September 21, 1995 – Philadelphia Inquirer
  19. ^ "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts", March 4, 1991 – The New York Times
  20. ^ Search: Franz Lidz - The New York Times
  21. ^ "Film: Unstrung And Calling The Shots", September 3, 1995 – The New York Times
  22. ^ "Sidney Lidz – Obituary", July 28, 1981 – The New York Times
  23. ^ "Steelman Transitape portable reel-to-reel tape recorder" on YouTube, 1959
  24. ^ "Beginning at the Ending at the Bates Motel", September 13, 1998 – The New York Times
  25. ^ a b c "From the Editor", April 8, 1991
  26. ^ "A Writer's Relative Chaos: How Crazy Were Franz Lidz's Uncles? We're Glad You Asked That ...", April 7, 1991 – Philadelphia Inquirer
  27. ^ "Arn Tellem and Franz Lidz Are Going to the Hall of Fame", Philadelphia, May 17, 2015
  28. ^ "Franz Lidz & Arn Tellem entering Hall together", Philadelphia Daily News, May 27, 2015
  29. ^ a b "Letter From The Publisher" – May 10, 1982 – Sports Illustrated
  30. ^ "Letter From The Publisher" – March 9, 1987 – Sports Illustrated
  31. ^ "Letter from the Publisher" March 26, 1984 – Sports Illustrated
  32. ^ "Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes", February 9, 1991 – Baltimore Sun
  33. ^ "Odds are, these guys are real characters", September 21, 1995 – Baltimore Sun
  34. ^ "Redford movie may be filmed locally", January 23, 1991 – Baltimore Sun
  35. ^ "Good Ol' Charlie Schulz", December 23, 1985 - Sports Illustrated
  36. ^ "What is Jeopardy!?", May 1, 1989 - Sports Illustrated
  37. ^ "From Hair To Eternity", December 10, 1990 - Sports Illustrated
  38. ^ "Meat Bomb", May 18, 1992 - Sports Illustrated
  39. ^ "She's Got Balls", November 2, 1998 - Sports Illustrated
  40. ^ a b "The Sport of Drunken Hairy Scots", May 7, 2008 – Philadelphia Inquirer
  41. ^ "Gil Rogin Resurfaces", September 24, 2010 – AARP: The Magazine
  42. ^ "The Virtuoso of the Canorama: Gil Rogin Ran SI at Its Peak, But His Fiction Might Make Him Immortal", September 22, 2010 – The New York Observer
  43. ^ "Almost Famous", August 15, 2016 – Sports Illustrated
  44. ^ "Upstairs, Downstairs and In Between", December 1, 2011 – WSJ.
  45. ^ "The Great Zambezi River Expedition", January 30, 1983 – The New York Times
  46. ^ "Who’s the Dodo Now? A Famously Extinct Bird, Reconsidered", September 20, 2024 – The New York Times
  47. ^ "What Do We Really Know About Neanderthals?", May, 2019 Smithsonian
  48. ^ "As Earth Warms, Old Mayhem and Secrets Emerge From the Ice", November 2, 2021 – The New York Times
  49. ^ "They Shoot Owls in California, Don’t They?", April 29, 2024 – New York Times
  50. ^ "How (and Where) Did Hannibal Cross the Alps?", July, 2017 - Smithsonian
  51. ^ "Off-Road Warriors", January 21, 2002 - Sports Illustrated
  52. ^ "Baseball After The Boss", August 2, 2007 – Conde Nast Portfolio
  53. ^ "Portfolio Diagnoses Steinbrenner, but New York Post gives a Second Opinion", August 7, 2007 – New York Observer
  54. ^ "The Journalist Who Revealed How Ill George Steinbrenner Was", July 13, 2007 – AOL
  55. ^ "How's the Boss? Steinbrenner Looks Dreadful" Archived 13 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, August 3, 2007 – Gothamist
  56. ^ "The Nack: Great Reporting, Vivid Writing", December 15, 2008 – Bronx Banter
  57. ^ "Up and Down in Beverly Hills", April 17, 2000 – Sports Illustrated
  58. ^ "Donald Sterling Has Been Lost In Another Century For Some Time", April 27, 2014 – Chicago Sun-Times
  59. ^ "Sterling's offensive behavior was no secret for years", April 30, 2014 – Sports Illustrated
  60. ^ "Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now", April 29, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
  61. ^ The story behind Jason Collins' story: How it happened, April 29, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
  62. ^ "How Sports Illustrated Broke the Jason Collins Story", April 29, 2013 – The New York Times
  63. ^ "Jason Collins, 10 Years Later: Progress Made, but There's Work to Be Done for LGBTQ Athletes", April 25, 2023 - Sports Illustrated
  64. ^ "Summer Films: Creature Features; The Ongoing Adventures of Moose and Squirrel", April 20, 2000 – The New York Times
  65. ^ "To Our Readers", September 25, 1995 – Sports Illustrated
  66. ^ "My Uncle, The Collector: A Hobbyist on a Shoestring", January 25, 1987 – Sports Illustrated
  67. ^ "Uncle Harry Never Lost A Fight But He Never Really Fought One, Either", December 20, 1982 – Sports Illustrated
  68. ^ "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts", March 4, 1991 – The New York Times
  69. ^ "The Unlikely Heroics of Unstrung Heroes", February 20, 1991 – Los Angeles Times
  70. ^ "Unstrung Heroes", February, 1991 – Random House
  71. ^ "The star and author of 'Unstrung Heroes'", September 22, 1995 – Entertainment Weekly
  72. ^ Nancy Jo Sales (18 September 1995). "Undone Heroes". New York. New York Media, LLC. p. 58.
  73. ^ "In a Higher State of Being (That Is, Dying)", January 10, 1999 – The New York Times
  74. ^ "The Paper Chase", October 26, 2003 – The New York Times
  75. ^ "A Trashy Read / Hoarding hermits? A typist's true tale", November 2, 2003 – Newsday
  76. ^ "Author delves into his inner hoarder His eccentric uncle led him to write about the Collyer brothers", May 16, 2004 – Philadelphia Inquirer
  77. ^ "If Anything Should Inspire ...", January 4, 2004 – The Washington Post
  78. ^ "Heavy Metal Rockers Find Peace And Quiet—and Rock Fans—on The Links", November 27, 1986 – Sports Illustrated
  79. ^ "Fairway to Hell", April, 2008 – ESPN
  80. ^ "Books In Review", May 30, 2008 – Only A Game, NPR
  81. ^ "We Know What You'll See Next Summer ...", November 15, 1998 – The New York Times
  82. ^ "Here A Comic Genius, There A Comic Genius", January 30, 2000 – The New York Times
  83. ^ "How to Tell a Bad Movie From a Truly Bad Movie", August 5, 2001 – The New York Times
  84. ^ "News Briefs", November 19, 1998 – The Tuscaloosa News
  85. ^ "A Shot at Thumb-Wrestling With Roger", April 16, 2000 – The New York Times
  86. ^ "The Uses of Irreverence", Fall, 2020 - Ojai Quarterly, pgs. 38-41
  87. ^ Requiem For A Jumble of Artworks, January 21, 2010- The New York Times
  88. ^ "The Amazing Costumes of Downton Abbey", February 18, 2014- Slate
  89. ^ "The duPonts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine", December, 2009 Delaware Today
  90. ^ "Meeting Maggie", February, 2009 O, The Oprah Magazine
  91. ^ "Introducing Miss Daisy", June 23, 2003 – Sports Illustrated
  92. ^ "Where the wild things are – inside the tent", November 21, 2004 Los Angeles Times
  93. ^ Gogo Lidz: Staff Writer, Newsweek
  94. ^ "Daisy Lidz, Thor Ritz", July 23, 2010 – The New York Times
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