Mark Twain was half in love with her and called her “the most interesting woman that ever lived, and the most exciting.” Who was she? She was Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), a healer, public speaker, businesswoman and author whom the Atlantic Monthly called one of the “100 Most Influential Americans […]
Thom Nickels: The tightly controlled life of an air traffic controller
In 1970, when I lived in Boston, I knew an air traffic controller who lived in a basement apartment on Beacon Hill. Stephen (not his real name) was an impish, Irish guy with a slight mustache — he looked very much like the young Edgar Allan Poe. Fast on his […]
Thom Nickels: The last Romanian princess, Part II
This is the second part of the story of the author’s visit to a monastery in western Pennsylvania. Part one may be found here. The founding of the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration was the dream of Princess Ileana of Romania who became a nun in 1961 in Bussy, France. […]
Thom Nickels: The last Romanian princess
I’m on Amtrak’s Pennsylvanian traveling from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh to check out the legacy of the last Romanian Princess. Arranging this trip was almost as difficult as planning a trip to Romania. Figuring out how to get to Ellwood City, Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh was a challenge. Ellwood City is where […]
Thom Nickels: Where do dead journalists go?
Where do dead journalists go? Presumably they go where everyone else goes, but in the competitive fishbowl world of Philly journalism, once they disappear they are gone without a trace. Of course, there is the obituary, or the accompanying news story surrounding the event, but after that there seems to […]
Thom Nickels: Picturing sainthood
The photographer says that Mother Teresa “had the ability to see goodness in each person without judgment.”
By Thom Nickels
Thom Nickels: Daniel P. Mannix and Peter the Python
The Mannix farm was a legendary place in an area that was then called Bacton Hill. It was known as such because it’s owner, Daniel P. Mannix, was known as an adventure writer who traveled the world with his wife, Jule Junker Mannix, in search of wild animals to bring […]
Thom Nickels: Port Richmond elegy
There’s not a single vacant space in my Riverwards Fishtown-Port Richmond neighborhood that hasn’t been rezoned for rehab by developers. One night as I was making my way to a friend’s house in the neighborhood, I passed the spot where one of my favorite little houses once stood. This tiny […]
Thom Nickels: Owen Wister and the ‘Western Cure’
Several years ago while researching my book, Literary Philadelphia: A History of Poetry & Prose in the City of Brotherly Love, I looked into the life of Owen Wister, the author of the western novel, The Virginian. Wister was the only child of a physician father and an actress mother […]
Thom Nickels: Rooming houses could help with Philly’s overpriced housing market
Several years ago while browsing through the Rooms Wanted section of Philadelphia Craigslist, I found that many of the ads there sounded like the personal ads of old. Some people included photos of themselves and lists of their hobbies, likes and dislikes and whether or not they are drinkers, addicts […]