About the Author
Unlike “Navin R. Johnson”, Steve Martin’s moronic characterization in the 1979 comedy film “The Jerk” , I was not born a “poor black child”. I arrived in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on the 18th of October in 1946 - the firstborn of European immigrant offspring. My father’s parents were Irish and my mother’s parents were Sicilian. Although I was born in New England and could characterize myself as “a Yankee”, the Lion’s share of my cultural identity rests in background of the people who had a hand in raising me. What I know about the warmth and affection among extended family members, I learned from my mother’s Sicilian people. My incisive wit is… brought to you by the makers of …my father’s Irish people.
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