dan oshinsky dot com: A blog about stories, the work... and my mother.

Something changed in me this year. I know, because I was on the phone with a friend a few weeks ago. I was telling her about all the work I’m putting in with Stry and Very Quotatious and the fellowship, and she didn’t say anything. And then I saw her a few days later, and (…)

So this is the story about how back in 2004, something happened on Martin Luther King Day that changed my life. Actually, it wasn’t exactly MLK Day. It was the Friday before. Every year, my synagogue in D.C. holds a big interfaith service. Religious leaders from across the city come, and choirs sing, and there’s (…)

This is the time of the year when people start making bucket lists. You know what they are; I won’t ramble on here about mine. But what I would like to discuss is a sort of corollary to the bucket list. See: We have the bucket list, which looks long term. We have the to-do (…)

I am 24 years old, and I’m going through a period of transition in my life. It’s that time of the year when I start getting all thoughtful about where I am and where I’m going, and at this very moment, I’m stuck in Kansas City Int’l, waiting for a flight home. So I wanted (…)

This was originally published over at the RJI blog. But I really liked what I’d written. So I’m republishing it here: ❡❡❡ This is not a motivational blog post. I am not writing this to inspire you. I do not want you to read this and quit your job. Is that clear? Are you sure? (…)

I went to see NBC News’ David Gregory speak tonight in a little auditorium on Nantucket Island. He spoke for an hour, mostly about the failures of our political system and our economy and our media, and then he closed by reminding everyone that we were on a little island 30 miles off the coast (…)

I am finding that lately, I have had to defend my choice of telephone. I find this strange, as my telephone does exactly what I want it to do: It places and receives phone calls anywhere in America. The fact that it does this, and that I pay about $35 per month for such services, (…)

The revelation came to me in the moments before sleep, and I went searching for something to scribble it down on. All I could find was a small envelope on my kitchen table. But what else could I be expected to write on in such a moment? What hit me last night, what pulled me (…)

Two things — important things — are happening to me today. I am a very passive observer in both events. 1. I turn 22 years old. 2. I graduate from college. I know that May 16, 2009, is supposed to be a monumentally important day in the life of Dan Oshinsky. A half dozen of (…)

I was looking at my résumé this afternoon and struck by a strange realization: the thing is three pages long, including references and clips. Ideally, I’d like it to fit on a page. So what follows is an exercise in brevity: my work in journalism, in one — albeit very long — paragraph. When I (…)