Brianland

On this weekend 17 years ago — in the heat of the Democratic primary of 2008 between Hillary & Obama — I started BrianHassett.com. Every month since then for 17 years I’ve written at least one new piece for the site. “17” has been a weird number that’s followed me around my whole life from […]

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The Day I Thanked Arthur Miller   One of the nice things about living in Manhattan — you often bump into and sometimes get to talk to really smart people on the sidewalk.  When they’re famous, mostly you just nod acknowledgment and smile — like seeing Robin Williams walking and playing with his son on […]

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The Art of Glass, the Art of Business, and the Art of Love . One day a hundred years ago, or maybe it was five, I noticed this store called the Squisha House opened around the corner with insanely cool glass pipes!  What the hell?!  In little Bronte Village?!  I had to investigate! After keeping […]

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You wake up one day and your whole life changes just by the chance seeing of a picture. Much the way it might with a chance spotting of a poster on a bookstore wall. As Jack says, “My books are my children.”  And as Mama always preached — pregnancy can happen in an instant. Unlike […]

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The Beats, The Beatles & The Brotherhood . . This month I met a fellow Toronto-area author, John Arnone, who’s just written a book about The Beatles and Canada — Us and Them: Canada, Canadians and The Beatles.  In fact, in keeping with our Canadian heritage, we met after a ball hockey game and then […]

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The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – The Greatest Show in Television History THIS IS A ROUGH DRAFT — MUCH MORE TO COME NEED SCREEN-GRAB LENNY BRUCE  I know I’m a few years late on this, but — √ season one — 8 episodes √ two — 10 episodes √ three — 8 episodes √. four — […]

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The Power of Recycling . I inherited a bunch of stuff when my dear friend Uta passed away a few years ago.  One thing was her old laptop.  I wiped it clean of her personal files, and always thought I might use it, but it’s a PC and I’m a Mac guy, and “once you […]

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How To Remove A Squirrel’s Nest From A Tree   . We live in a very wildlife-rich area, and everybody gets along.  Well, I’m sure the rabbits aren’t too fond of the coyotes and foxes, but other than that, the deer, skunks, opossums, minks, beavers, chipmunks and raccoons don’t cause each other or the non-furry […]

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Introduction to Blissfully Ravaged in Democracy (April 2020) . Sometimes you meet a person who thinks like you do, who views the world through a similar lens.  For me, Brian Hassett is one of those people. We’re all products of our times, and Brian, being slightly younger than me, came of age in a different decade […]

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40 YEARS IN PRINT . A CHRONOLOGY OF THE PUBLISHED REAL-LIFE ADVENTURE TALES . . 1977 – May — writing a song with Guess Who founder Chad Allen – not in print as of yet, but it is on my website here. 1980 – April — John Anderson in San Diego – Blissfully Ravaged in […]

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