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

“People change. Circumstances change. Legal documents don’t change.” — Brent Beshore, CEO of AdVentures At my first job out of college, I was told that I would get health care. Dental, medical — the usual. This sounded good to me, even though I didn’t know what a co-pay was, or a deductible, or anything else (…)

I am in the midst of reading this fantastic new book, Tom Scocca’s “Beijing Welcomes You.” It’s about China’s capital city during the years leading up to and during the 2008 Olympic Games. I was there myself, covering the Games for the Rocky Mountain News, and reading Scocca’s account, I find myself experiencing some very (…)

All Things D brings word today that Facebook will soon be loaning its commenting system to major media players. For those who believe that commentating systems that use real names — and therefore add some sort of accountability and transparency to the commenting process — are more likely to limit trolls, this seems like a (…)

During the previous month, I’ve been cleaning out my childhood room, and I’ve made some unusual discoveries. Here is some of what I’ve found, presented without comment. 3 Maryland Terrapins posters from 1995, featuring an ad for Erol’s Internet 1 World Cup USA 94 bumper sticker 1 pack of ‘Moochas Gracias’ stationary, featuring a picture (…)

In the summer of 2009, having just accepted a job at a TV station in San Antonio, Texas, I attempted to convince my bosses to allow me to channel my inner Dave Barry and publish a daily blog, to be titled “The Evolution of Local Man.” The pitch, as I delivered to my bosses in (…)

There’s this amazing moment in one of Carl Reiner’s and Mel Brooks’ “2000 Year Old Man” sketches, when Reiner is moving through a line of questions about the early days of man. He’ll get to the good stuff in a second — questions about Joan of Arc, questions about the secrets to longevity — but (…)

For the last 10 days, there has been something wrong with me. I have been slightly more irritable than usual. I’ve been twitchy at work. I’ve gone through long spells when my mind appears to be in a very different place. Today, I believe I’ve discovered the problem. I may be bleeding out of my (…)

The first thing I heard was a weird scratching on the phone, like aluminum foil was being rubbed against the receiver. Then I heard my mother’s voice, frantic. “I must have just missed your call,” she said. This was last Thursday. But I didn’t call, I told her. That didn’t stop her. “No, Dan,” she (…)

I haven’t been home to D.C. since I left for south Texas just over seven months ago. I keep up with some home friends via phone, and I caught up with a few earlier this month out in L.A. But for a good chunk of news and gossip from home, I rely on an email (…)

I want to take it back. I cannot un-know what I know. I cannot reverse time. I cannot deny what has happened. But I cannot imagine going on knowing that one day, fourteen years ago, I may have accidentally rooted for Kansas. ¶¶ My dad used to do a bit of work with the D.C.-area (…)