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{{Short description|American writer (born 1951)}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}} | |||
{{Infobox writer | {{Infobox writer | ||
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| image = FranzLidz5&25&2009.jpg |
| image = FranzLidz5&25&2009.jpg | ||
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| birth_name = Franz Ira Lidz | ||
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| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1951|9|24}} | ||
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| birth_place = ], U.S. | ||
| notableworks = ''Unstrung Heroes (1991)''<br />''Ghosty Men (2003)''<br />''Fairway To Hell (2008)'' | |||
| notableworks = | |||
| spouse = Maggie Lidz (1976–present) | |||
''Unstrung Heroes (1991)'' | |||
| children = Gogo, Daisy | |||
| occupation = {{flatlist| | |||
''Ghosty Men (2003)'' | |||
* ] | |||
* memoirist | |||
''Fairway To Hell (2008)'' | |||
* American professional basketball executive | |||
| spouse = Maggie Lidz (1976-present) | |||
}} | |||
| children = Gogo, Daisy Daisy | |||
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| alma_mater = ] | ||
}} | }} | ||
'''Franz Lidz''' (born September 24, 1951) is an American writer, journalist and pro basketball executive. | |||
'''Franz Lidz''' is the author of the childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes'' (], 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'' (], 2008). He was a senior writer at '']'' from 1980 to 2007, and a contributing editor at ] ''Portfolio'' (2007-2009). He is a correspondent for '']'', '']'', '']''<ref>http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208373915001854.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_Lifestyle_6</ref> and, since 1983, has written for the '']'' on travel, TV, film and theater. | |||
A '']'' archaeology, science and film essayist,<ref>, August 9, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, September 29, 2002 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, September 23, 2009 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, February 14, 2020 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, April 11, 2020 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, June 18, 2021 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, January 30, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, December 26, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref> who originated the archeological column "Lost and Found".<ref>, May 1, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, June 6, 2023 – ''The New York Times''</ref> He's a former '']'' senior writer,<ref>, – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated700">, May 6, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref>'']'' columnist<ref>, December, 2012 - ''Smithsonian''</ref><ref>, November, 2015 - ''Smithsonian''</ref><ref>, May, 2018 - ''Smithsonian''</ref> and a onetime vice president for the ].<ref>, 2016–'17. (Free PDF download). Use search term "''Franz Lidz''"</ref><ref>, ''Smithsonian''</ref> His childhood memoir ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into ] in 1995.<ref name="autogenerated771">, September 21, 1995 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref><ref name = nyt>, March 4, 1991 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref> - ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, September 3, 1995 – ''The New York Times''</ref> | |||
== |
== Early life == | ||
Lidz was born in ], to Sidney, a Jewish ] who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape),<ref>, 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 ], ] and ].<ref>, September 13, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated702">, April 8, 1991</ref> | |||
At age nine, still named Stephen before later legally taking Franz as his first name, he moved to the ] suburbs.<ref name="autogenerated77">, April 7, 1991 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref><ref>, '']'', May 17, 2015</ref><ref>, '']'', May 27, 2015</ref> Lidz attended high school in ]<ref name="autogenerated1"> – May 10, 1982 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated3"> – March 9, 1987 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> and college at ],<ref name="autogenerated181"> March 26, 1984 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> where he was a theater major.<ref name="autogenerated12">, February 9, 1991 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref> | |||
Lidz went to ]'s high school (Cheltenham, Pa.) and ]'s college (]),<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm</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</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</ref> '''In a grad school drama class he chose to interpret the tragic role of ] 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>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121873/index.htm</ref> ], 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>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121873/index.htm</ref>''' | |||
''' | |||
== |
== 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 ].<ref name="autogenerated14">, September 21, 1995 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref> He later became an editor of ''] Magazine''.<ref>, January 23, 1991 – ''Baltimore Sun''</ref> | |||
Lidz chose journalism because "I wanted to find an 'ism' that wouldn't become a 'wasm'." He tried to gain a foothold in the world of traditional journalism. In vain. Asked to mail clippings to an editor at '']'', he sent an envelope full of hair instead of stories he had written. A job offer wasn't forthcoming.<ref>http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-09-21/features/1995264017_1_lidz-daisy-daisy-unstrung-heroes/2</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 ], 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 '']'' 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>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm</ref> | |||
In 1980, he joined the staff of '']'',<ref name="autogenerated36">, December 23, 1985 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated89">, May 1, 1989 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated6">, December 10, 1990 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated7">, May 18, 1992 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated65">, November 2, 1998 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> even though he had never read the magazine<ref name="philly1">, May 7, 2008 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life – a ] in ], ].<ref name="autogenerated101">, September 24, 2010 – ''AARP: The Magazine''</ref><ref>, September 22, 2010 – ''The New York Observer''</ref><ref name="autogenerated702"/> Lidz remained on the writing staff for 27 years.<ref name="autogenerated128">, August 15, 2016 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> In 2007 he jumped to the short-lived business monthly ''Conde Nast Portfolio'', and then '']'' magazine<ref>, December 1, 2011 – ]</ref> before landing at ''Smithsonian'' in 2012. His first feature story in ''The New York Times'', on making the second descent of the ], appeared on January 30, 1983.<ref>, 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 ].<ref>http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3423</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 ];<ref>http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-02-19/news/1991050047_1_franz-lidz-uncle-kris-dahl/2</ref> and the East Baltimore bookmaker Louis Comi, who would trail after his five ]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</ref> | |||
Among his most controversial features are essays on reappraising the ];<ref>, September 20, 2024 – ''The New York Times''</ref> reconsidering ];<ref>, May, 2019 ''Smithsonian''</ref> the effects of climate change on glacial archaeology;<ref>, November 2, 2021 – ''The New York Times''</ref> the Pacific Northwest barred owl cull;<ref>"", April 29, 2024 – ''New York Times''</ref> ];<ref>, July, 2017 - ''Smithsonian''</ref> the 2002 Paris-to-];<ref name="autogenerated1731">, January 21, 2002 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> ] and the ]' line of succession;<ref>, August 2, 2007 – ''Conde Nast Portfolio''</ref><ref>, August 7, 2007 – ''New York Observer''</ref><ref>, July 13, 2007 – ''AOL''</ref><ref> {{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>, December 15, 2008 – Bronx Banter</ref> the hijinks of onetime ] owner ];<ref name="autogenerated38">, April 17, 2000 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, April 27, 2014 – '']''</ref><ref name="autogenerated41">, April 30, 2014 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> and a ''S.I.'' cover story with ] player ] 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">, April 29, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated23">, April 29, 2013 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, April 29, 2013 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated67">, April 25, 2023 - ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> | |||
== Notable works == | |||
When Lidz came to ''S.I.'' for a job interview during the summer of 1980, he wore black ] hightops, a wool sport coat and a hunted look.<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm</ref> His résumé read like a picaresque novel. He'd been a DJ, a soda jerk, a substitute teacher, an improvisational actor, a wanderer through ], a cabbie in ], a snail gunder in ] 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>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm</ref> Until he joined the staff of , he had never read the magazine<ref>http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-blinq/franz.html</ref> and had covered only one sporting event in his life—a pigeon race in a small town in Maine.<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1139796/index.htm</ref> He got the job interview on the strength of a prickly profile of '']'' editor ] written for '']'' magazine,<ref>http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-01-23/features/1991023041_1_western-maryland-university-of-maryland-lonesome-dove</ref> <ref>http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq-blinq/franz.html</ref> 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. With a flick of the wrist, Lidz did it, handed the jar back and asked, "When do I start?"<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1125488/index.htm</ref> | |||
=== ''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</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>http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1991-02-19/news/1991050047_1_franz-lidz-uncle-kris-dahl/2</ref> Lidz's career highlights include the second descent of the ] River; a globe-girdling road trip in search of sports on the equator;<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1012028/index.htm</ref> 10 days in dog-sledding school;<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1015789/index.htm</ref> a two-week trek retracing ]'s route through the jungles of ];<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1010901/index.htm</ref> three weeks in the ] covering the Paris-to-];<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/features/siadventure/11/off_road/</ref> a surreal voyage into the 5th Dimension with ];<ref>http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1oH6E9/sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/writers/franz_lidz/02/16/darren/</ref> a dispatch for ] from the 2004 mountain bike ] championship in ], ];<ref>http://www.slatetv.com/id/2104258/</ref> a cutting-edge story on the World Championships of ];<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1004206/index.htm</ref> a semester at a gladiator school<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1021623/index.htm</ref> in ];<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1021622/index.htm</ref> a one-on-one ] powwow with ];<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/01/movies/film-what-you-see-is-not-what-you-ll-get.html?pagewanted=all</ref> a report from the semi-lethal ] game -- a 12th century "town maul meeting" in ], ];<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1025155/index.htm</ref> a report from the totally-lethal ] race;<ref>http://ijms.nova.edu/November2007TT/IJMS_Artcl.Vaukins.html</ref> a 10-page ]ish rumination on '']'';<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1068347/index.htm</ref> an extended road trip from ] to ] with 630-pound<ref>http://www.slate.com/id/2110026/pagenum/all/</ref> ] wrestler ] - otherwise known as Meat Bomb;<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1003795/index.htm</ref> and a lengthy powwow with ] 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</ref> His essay on ] and the ]' line of succession<ref>http://www.portfolio.com/culture-lifestyle/culture-inc/sports/2007/08/02/Baseball-and-Steinbrenner/</ref> was called the "scoop of the year" in the 2008 ] collection '']''.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Best-American-Sports-Writing-2008/dp/B001TODOCC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1255367987&sr=1-2-fkmr3</ref> | |||
''Unstrung Heroes'' is about Lidz's childhood, with his mother, father and his dad's four older brothers.<ref name="autogenerated702"/><ref>, April 20, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref name="autogenerated213">, September 25, 1995 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> He had previously written about two of the uncles in'' Sports Illustrated''.<ref name="autogenerated13">, January 25, 1987 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref name="autogenerated19">, December 20, 1982 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref> | |||
=='''Notable Works'''== | |||
In his review of ''Unstrung Heroes'' in ''The New York Times'', ] 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>, March 4, 1991 – ''The New York Times''</ref> ] of the '']'' likened the memoir to a "miniature '']''. There's not a false moment in the book, and that is high praise indeed."<ref>, February 20, 1991 – '']''</ref> '']'' called ''Unstrung Heroes'': "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."<ref>, February, 1991 – ''Random House''</ref> | |||
===''Unstrung Heroes, The Book''=== | |||
In 1995, ''Unstrung Heroes'' was adapted into ].<ref name="autogenerated771"/> The setting was switched from ] to ], 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>, 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 ] would turn my uncles into ] and ]", he told '']'' magazine. "I never imagined my life could be turned into ]."<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=]|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>, January 10, 1999 – ''The New York Times''</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." Uncle Leo was a self-proclaimed literary genius who was sent to an asylum after declaring himself the Messiah of ]. Uncle Danny was a paranoid of unparalleled persistence. Once during a game at Yankee Stadium, Mickey Mantle hit a foul ball that landed near Franz and a terrified Danny, who scrambled to hide under his seat, convinced that Mantle was trying to assassinate him. Uncle Harry, a veteran of the ],<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/1999/04/08/classified/paid-notice-deaths-lidz-harry-h.html?pagewanted=1</ref> was sincerely committed to the belief that he was the world boxing champion in nine different weight divisions,<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1126257/index.htm</ref> and Uncle Arthur was the proud possessor of what was very likely the world's largest collection of used shoelaces.<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1139796/index.htm</ref> Leo Lidz, who spent better than half his life in a New York asylum, may have been speaking for all his siblings when he once told his young nephew, "I'm not all I'm cracked up to be."<ref>http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-09-21/features/1995264017_1_lidz-daisy-daisy-unstrung-heroes/2</ref> "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." | |||
=== ''Ghosty Men'' === | |||
In his review of ''Unstrung Heroes'' in the ''New York Times'', ] 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</ref> | |||
''Ghosty Men'' (2003) is the story of the ]. 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 ].<ref>, October 26, 2003 – ''The New York Times''</ref> The book also recounts the parallel life of Arthur Lidz,<ref>, November 2, 2003 – ''Newsday''</ref> the hermit uncle of ''Unstrung Heroes'', who grew up near the Collyer mansion.<ref>, May 16, 2004 – ''Philadelphia Inquirer''</ref> | |||
] of the '']'' called the book a "miniature '']''. 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</ref> | |||
In his review for '']'', Adam Bernstein wrote, "The Collyer Brothers made compelling reading then, as they do now in this short, captivatingly detailed book."<ref>, January 4, 2004 – '']''</ref> | |||
In '']'', Laurie Stone gushed: "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Ghosty-Men-Brothers-Greatest-Historical/dp/158234311X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272680383&sr=1-1</ref> | |||
=== ''Fairway to Hell'' === | |||
Of the hardback edition of ''Unstrung Heroes'', Franz Lidz once said: "I think of the first editions as my children, because I know where every one of them is."<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007145/index.htm</ref> | |||
''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 ].<ref>, November 27, 1986 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, April, 2008 – ''ESPN''</ref> ] reviewed the book on the ] show '']'', saying "His estimable wit is also evident in ''Fairway To Hell''."<ref>, May 30, 2008 – ''Only A Game, NPR''</ref> | |||
===''Unstrung Heroes, The Film''=== | |||
== Collaborations == | |||
In 1995, the unsentimental ''Unstrung Heroes'' was turned into a sentimental film starring ] and ] as Sidney and Selma Lidz, and directed by ]. 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 ], but he did say: '"The script was very neatly typed.'"<ref>http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,298784,00.html</ref> In a 1995 '']'' profile that ran before the film's release, he confessed, "My initial fear was that ] would turn my uncles into Grumpy and Dopey. I never imagined that my life could be turned into '']''."<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 ''],'' drifts off to die in a comfy armchair -- reminded me of ]'s send-up of ''].''" 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</ref> | |||
Lidz has written numerous essays for '']'' with novelist and former '']'' colleague ].<ref>, November 15, 1998 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, January 30, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, 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''. | |||
===''Ghosty Men''=== | |||
Lidz has been a commentator for '']'' on ],<ref>, November 19, 1998 – ''The Tuscaloosa News''</ref> and was a guest film critic on the syndicated '']'', following ]'s passing. The segment did not air.<ref>, April 16, 2000 – ''The New York Times''</ref> He also appeared on ]'s ].<ref name="autogenerated1"/> | |||
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>http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ghosty-Men/Franz-Lidz/e/9781582343112/</ref> | |||
== Personal life == | |||
''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 ], the hermit hoarders of ]."<ref>http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/26/nyregion/the-paper-chase.html?pagewanted=1</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>http://www.amazon.com/Ghosty-Men-Brothers-Greatest-Historical/dp/158234311X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269377262&sr=1-1</ref> 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 ] 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</ref> | |||
Lidz lives in ]<ref>, Fall, 2020 - ''Ojai Quarterly'', pgs. 38-41</ref> with his wife, Maggie, an author and onetime historian at the ] in ].<ref>, January 21, 2010- ''The New York Times''</ref><ref>, February 18, 2014- ''Slate''</ref><ref>, December, 2009 ''Delaware Today''</ref><ref>, February, 2009 '']''</ref> They have two daughters.<ref name="autogenerated118">, June 23, 2003 – ''Sports Illustrated''</ref><ref>, November 21, 2004 ''Los Angeles Times''</ref><ref>, ''Newsweek''</ref><ref>, July 23, 2010 – ''The New York Times''</ref> | |||
'']'' critic ] wrote: The "book has to its advantage a sympathy for the forgotten and keen observations about what consoles broken souls."<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+...</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>http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Ghosty-Men/Franz-Lidz/e/9781582343112/</ref> | |||
== References == | |||
===''Fairway To Hell''=== | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
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 ] and the drunken heavy metal band ], and a ] farmer who raises ] as caddies. He reported from a ] course at which 15 holes are guarded by live ], the Fattie Open - where you're penalized if you weigh under 250 pounds, and a pitch-and-putt tournament at a ] ].<ref>http://www.espnbooks.com/book.cgi?id=28</ref> The author encountered a burrowing ] on a course in ] and engaged in an increasingly preposterous e-mail exchange with a Nigerian scam artist about bank accounts and rocket golf carts.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Fairway-Hell-Around-World-Holes/dp/1933060433/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269377804&sr=1-1</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 ]; others hung like head covers stuffed with bricks. Some men had chest hair thicker than ] 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 ]. In case you were wondering, his bag didn't match his shoes." | |||
On the ] show '']'', host ] 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''' == | |||
Lidz has written numerous essays for ] with novelist and former ] colleague ]. Three of them appear under the title ''Piscopo Agonistes'' in the 2000 collection '']: The Best Contemporary Humor''.<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Mirth-Nation-Best-Contemporary-Humor/dp/1567318339/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1271037960&sr=1-2</ref> | |||
== '''Personal Life''' == | |||
Lidz lives on a six-acre farm in ]'s Brandywine Valley with two llamas (Ogar and Edgar), two ] (Ella and Errol), two cats (Yojimbo and Sanjuro), three dozen chickens and guinea fowl (don't ask), two daughters (Gogo and Daisy Daisy) and one wife (Maggie), an author<ref>http://www.amazon.com/Ponts-Houses-Gardens-Brandywine/dp/0926494694/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265325080&sr=1-1</ref> and the historian at the ] in ]. "We must be the only household in the world that subscribes to ''Llama'', ''Poultry News'', ''Sumo World'' and '']''," Lidz has said.<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1007145/index.htm</ref> On his first date with Maggie he realized that one week earlier her father, journalist Gerald Renner,<ref> </ref> had picked him up hitchhiking on ]. 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 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</ref> Gogo and Daisy Daisy (Didi) were named after the protagonists in ]. "I always wanted to play the title character," he once said, "but I would have spent the whole night in the wings."<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1121873/index.htm</ref> | |||
Lidz insists that his dream double-play combination is Ginsberg to Whitman to Pound because they represent "true poetry in motion."<ref>http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1139796/index.htm</ref> Inspired by the advice of ] scholar ] ("You have an obligation to visit the great men of your time"), Lidz once made a pilgrimage to ]'s villa in ], ], inveigling his way in with the line: "I'm on a world tour of the homes of everyone I've ever seen on ]." He has appeared on ]'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: == | |||
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 | |||
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Latest revision as of 04:52, 18 December 2024
American writer (born 1951)
Franz Lidz | |
---|---|
Born | Franz Ira Lidz (1951-09-24) September 24, 1951 (age 73) New York City, U.S. |
Occupation |
|
Alma mater | Antioch College |
Notable works | Unstrung Heroes (1991) Ghosty Men (2003) Fairway To Hell (2008) |
Spouse | Maggie Lidz (1976–present) |
Children | Gogo, 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, who originated the archeological column "Lost and Found". He's a former Sports Illustrated senior writer,Smithsonian columnist and a onetime vice president for the Detroit Pistons. His childhood memoir Unstrung Heroes was adapted into a Hollywood film of the same title in 1995.
Early life
Lidz was born in Manhattan, to Sidney, a Jewish electronics engineer who designed the first transistorized portable tape recorder (the Steelman Transitape), and Selma, a homemaker. His father gave him early exposure to authors like Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter and Eugène Ionesco.
At age nine, still named Stephen before later legally taking Franz as his first name, he moved to the Philadelphia suburbs. Lidz attended high school in Cheltenham and college at Antioch College, where he was a theater major.
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. He later became an editor of Johns Hopkins University Magazine.
In 1980, he joined the staff of Sports Illustrated, even though he had never read the magazine and had covered only one sporting event in his life – a pigeon race in Shapleigh, Maine. Lidz remained on the writing staff for 27 years. In 2007 he jumped to the short-lived business monthly Conde Nast Portfolio, and then WSJ. magazine 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.
Among his most controversial features are essays on reappraising the dodo; reconsidering Neanderthals; the effects of climate change on glacial archaeology; the Pacific Northwest barred owl cull; Hannibal; the 2002 Paris-to-Dakar Rally; George Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees' line of succession; the hijinks of onetime Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling; 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.
Notable works
Unstrung Heroes
Unstrung Heroes is about Lidz's childhood, with his mother, father and his dad's four older brothers. He had previously written about two of the uncles in Sports Illustrated.
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". 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." The Village Voice called Unstrung Heroes: "Astonishing, hilarious, angry, poignant, always pointed."
In 1995, Unstrung Heroes was adapted into a film of the same title. 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". 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." 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."
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. The book also recounts the parallel life of Arthur Lidz, the hermit uncle of Unstrung Heroes, who grew up near the Collyer mansion.
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."
Fairway to Hell
Fairway to Hell is a 2008 memoir centering on Lidz' unusual golfing experiences: encountering nudists, llama caddies and celebrities like the heavy metal band Judas Priest. 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."
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.
Lidz has been a commentator for Morning Edition on NPR, and was a guest film critic on the syndicated Siskel & Ebert, following Gene Siskel's passing. The segment did not air. He also appeared on David Letterman's show.
Personal life
Lidz lives in Ojai, California with his wife, Maggie, an author and onetime historian at the Winterthur Museum in Delaware. They have two daughters.
References
- "Film; Sorry, Uma, There's Only One Emma", August 9, 1998 – The New York Times
- "Film; The Scenery, Though, He Won't Chew", September 29, 2002 – The New York Times
- "Biblical Adversity in a '60s Suburb", September 23, 2009 – The New York Times
- "Here Lies the Skull of Pliny the Elder, Maybe", February 14, 2020 – The New York Times
- "At the Sourdough Library, With Some Very Old Mothers", April 11, 2020 – The New York Times
- "She Fell Nearly Two Miles And Walked Away", June 18, 2021 – The New York Times
- "What The Ancient Bog Bodies Knew", January 30, 2023 – The New York Times
- "What To Do With A Bug Named Hitler", December 26, 2023 – The New York Times
- "Ancient Romans Dropped Their Bling Down the Drain, Too", May 1, 2023 – The New York Times
- "Put a Bird on It? Ancient Egypt Was Way Ahead of Us", June 6, 2023 – The New York Times
- "Classic Archives: Franz Lidz", – Sports Illustrated
- "Jason Collins", May 6, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
- "Dr. NakaMats, the Man With 3300 Patents to His Name", December, 2012 - Smithsonian
- "Behold The Blobfish", November, 2015 - Smithsonian
- "Britain's Lake District Was Immortalized by Beatrix Potter, But Is Its Future in Peril?", May, 2018 - Smithsonian
- "Detroit Pistons Media Guide: Executive Staff", 2016–'17. (Free PDF download). Use search term "Franz Lidz"
- "Franz Lidz", Smithsonian
- ^ "Lost In Translation", September 21, 1995 – Philadelphia Inquirer
- "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts", March 4, 1991 – The New York Times
- Search: Franz Lidz - The New York Times
- "Film: Unstrung And Calling The Shots", September 3, 1995 – The New York Times
- "Sidney Lidz – Obituary", July 28, 1981 – The New York Times
- "Steelman Transitape portable reel-to-reel tape recorder" on YouTube, 1959
- "Beginning at the Ending at the Bates Motel", September 13, 1998 – The New York Times
- ^ "From the Editor", April 8, 1991
- "A Writer's Relative Chaos: How Crazy Were Franz Lidz's Uncles? We're Glad You Asked That ...", April 7, 1991 – Philadelphia Inquirer
- "Arn Tellem and Franz Lidz Are Going to the Hall of Fame", Philadelphia, May 17, 2015
- "Franz Lidz & Arn Tellem entering Hall together", Philadelphia Daily News, May 27, 2015
- ^ "Letter From The Publisher" – May 10, 1982 – Sports Illustrated
- "Letter From The Publisher" – March 9, 1987 – Sports Illustrated
- "Letter from the Publisher" March 26, 1984 – Sports Illustrated
- "Lidz weaves a tale of family, life on fringes", February 9, 1991 – Baltimore Sun
- "Odds are, these guys are real characters", September 21, 1995 – Baltimore Sun
- "Redford movie may be filmed locally", January 23, 1991 – Baltimore Sun
- "Good Ol' Charlie Schulz", December 23, 1985 - Sports Illustrated
- "What is Jeopardy!?", May 1, 1989 - Sports Illustrated
- "From Hair To Eternity", December 10, 1990 - Sports Illustrated
- "Meat Bomb", May 18, 1992 - Sports Illustrated
- "She's Got Balls", November 2, 1998 - Sports Illustrated
- ^ "The Sport of Drunken Hairy Scots", May 7, 2008 – Philadelphia Inquirer
- "Gil Rogin Resurfaces", September 24, 2010 – AARP: The Magazine
- "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
- "Almost Famous", August 15, 2016 – Sports Illustrated
- "Upstairs, Downstairs and In Between", December 1, 2011 – WSJ.
- "The Great Zambezi River Expedition", January 30, 1983 – The New York Times
- "Who’s the Dodo Now? A Famously Extinct Bird, Reconsidered", September 20, 2024 – The New York Times
- "What Do We Really Know About Neanderthals?", May, 2019 Smithsonian
- "As Earth Warms, Old Mayhem and Secrets Emerge From the Ice", November 2, 2021 – The New York Times
- "They Shoot Owls in California, Don’t They?", April 29, 2024 – New York Times
- "How (and Where) Did Hannibal Cross the Alps?", July, 2017 - Smithsonian
- "Off-Road Warriors", January 21, 2002 - Sports Illustrated
- "Baseball After The Boss", August 2, 2007 – Conde Nast Portfolio
- "Portfolio Diagnoses Steinbrenner, but New York Post gives a Second Opinion", August 7, 2007 – New York Observer
- "The Journalist Who Revealed How Ill George Steinbrenner Was", July 13, 2007 – AOL
- "How's the Boss? Steinbrenner Looks Dreadful" Archived 13 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine, August 3, 2007 – Gothamist
- "The Nack: Great Reporting, Vivid Writing", December 15, 2008 – Bronx Banter
- "Up and Down in Beverly Hills", April 17, 2000 – Sports Illustrated
- "Donald Sterling Has Been Lost In Another Century For Some Time", April 27, 2014 – Chicago Sun-Times
- "Sterling's offensive behavior was no secret for years", April 30, 2014 – Sports Illustrated
- "Why NBA center Jason Collins is coming out now", April 29, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
- The story behind Jason Collins' story: How it happened, April 29, 2013 – Sports Illustrated
- "How Sports Illustrated Broke the Jason Collins Story", April 29, 2013 – The New York Times
- "Jason Collins, 10 Years Later: Progress Made, but There's Work to Be Done for LGBTQ Athletes", April 25, 2023 - Sports Illustrated
- "Summer Films: Creature Features; The Ongoing Adventures of Moose and Squirrel", April 20, 2000 – The New York Times
- "To Our Readers", September 25, 1995 – Sports Illustrated
- "My Uncle, The Collector: A Hobbyist on a Shoestring", January 25, 1987 – Sports Illustrated
- "Uncle Harry Never Lost A Fight But He Never Really Fought One, Either", December 20, 1982 – Sports Illustrated
- "Books of The Times; Reality Was Relative and the Relatives Were Nuts", March 4, 1991 – The New York Times
- "The Unlikely Heroics of Unstrung Heroes", February 20, 1991 – Los Angeles Times
- "Unstrung Heroes", February, 1991 – Random House
- "The star and author of 'Unstrung Heroes'", September 22, 1995 – Entertainment Weekly
- Nancy Jo Sales (18 September 1995). "Undone Heroes". New York. New York Media, LLC. p. 58.
- "In a Higher State of Being (That Is, Dying)", January 10, 1999 – The New York Times
- "The Paper Chase", October 26, 2003 – The New York Times
- "A Trashy Read / Hoarding hermits? A typist's true tale", November 2, 2003 – Newsday
- "Author delves into his inner hoarder His eccentric uncle led him to write about the Collyer brothers", May 16, 2004 – Philadelphia Inquirer
- "If Anything Should Inspire ...", January 4, 2004 – The Washington Post
- "Heavy Metal Rockers Find Peace And Quiet—and Rock Fans—on The Links", November 27, 1986 – Sports Illustrated
- "Fairway to Hell", April, 2008 – ESPN
- "Books In Review", May 30, 2008 – Only A Game, NPR
- "We Know What You'll See Next Summer ...", November 15, 1998 – The New York Times
- "Here A Comic Genius, There A Comic Genius", January 30, 2000 – The New York Times
- "How to Tell a Bad Movie From a Truly Bad Movie", August 5, 2001 – The New York Times
- "News Briefs", November 19, 1998 – The Tuscaloosa News
- "A Shot at Thumb-Wrestling With Roger", April 16, 2000 – The New York Times
- "The Uses of Irreverence", Fall, 2020 - Ojai Quarterly, pgs. 38-41
- Requiem For A Jumble of Artworks, January 21, 2010- The New York Times
- "The Amazing Costumes of Downton Abbey", February 18, 2014- Slate
- "The duPonts: Houses and Gardens in the Brandywine", December, 2009 Delaware Today
- "Meeting Maggie", February, 2009 O, The Oprah Magazine
- "Introducing Miss Daisy", June 23, 2003 – Sports Illustrated
- "Where the wild things are – inside the tent", November 21, 2004 Los Angeles Times
- Gogo Lidz: Staff Writer, Newsweek
- "Daisy Lidz, Thor Ritz", July 23, 2010 – The New York Times
- 21st-century American novelists
- 21st-century American memoirists
- American male novelists
- Antioch College alumni
- Living people
- 1951 births
- People from Sanford, Maine
- People from Cheltenham, Pennsylvania
- Smithsonian (magazine) people
- Journalists from New York City
- 21st-century American male writers
- Novelists from New York (state)
- American male non-fiction writers
- Sportswriters from New York (state)
- Sportspeople from York County, Maine