Category: Writing sample
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Ich bin ein Teenager
The Juvenile Delinquent Films of Germany In March of 1955, a film titled Blackboard Jungle opened to the raucous strains of Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” and blew moviegoers out of their seats. The film was a hit with teenagers and led to feeding frenzy in Hollywood to make more films about juvenile delinquents…
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Understanding the Gilbreath Principle
Many years ago, I created a blog post that explained “The Gilbreath Principle,” a mathematical concept that is used in several magic tricks.1 Initially, I wrote the article to help myself understand the principle, but my explanation became popular on the magic forums, with one person commenting: “…[Y]our post with the red and green blocks…
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Everything Put Together Falls Apart
The Final Days of the GDR This is a heavily abridged version of Chapter Fifteen in my book, Movies Behind the Wall. This version contains only the text that deals with the historical events of 1988 and ’89, and not the movies that were released by East Germany’s film production company DEFA during those years.…
Jim Morton 