Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan

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The Roanoke Times publishes my letter about the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

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I was so pleased this morning to see that The Roanoke Times published my letter to the editor about the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.  You can find it right here.

I’m honored that my thoughts about the occasion appear to have struck a chord with people.  This same letter was featured  first on Wednesday by New York’s Newsday (with a weekday circulation of 437,000), and then here in Virginia by The Bristol Herald Courier (with a circulation of 39,000).  As The Roanoke Times has a Sunday circulation of 85,000, this would mean that the letter was distributed to 561,000 readers.

Here’s a big word of thanks to the editors of The Roanoke Times for allowing me to communicate with with my neighbors through such a superb regional newspaper.

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The Bristol Herald Courier publishes my thoughts about September 11th.

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More good news — The Bristol Herald Courier also published my letter today about the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks.  (This is the longer version of my commentary that originally appeared here at my blog.)

You can find the letter right here:  “Your View: Wounded, unified America we discovered after 9/11 seems long gone.”

Thanks so much to the editors at The Bristol Herald Courier for allowing me to share my thoughts through this leading regional newspaper in southwest Virginia.

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Newsday printed my letter to the editor about the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

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I’m honored today to discover that Newsday published my letter to the editor about the 20th anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks.  (It is an edited version of the letter that I submitted.)  If you are a digital subscriber to Newsday, you can also read it online here.

Newsday is not only the newspaper that I grew up with — it is also the third largest paper in all of New York State and one of the largest in America.  It has a weekday circulation of 437,000, and reaches nearly half of Long Island’s households.  The 80-year-old publication has been the winner of 19 Pulitzer Prizes, with nominations for 20 more.  I am especially grateful to its editorial staff for selecting my letter for such an esteemed newspaper.

 

Newsday letter B

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Marketing art for “Masterpiece: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns” (2013)

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DC Comics.  Adapted from Miller’s interior art for his 1986 limited series, “The Dark Knight Returns.”

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My buddy photoshopped me as Wolverine; now I’m seeking an audition with the MCU.

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[UPDATE: You people DO realize this is s a joke, right? I am not actually seeking the role of Wolverine.]

Wish me luck.  Below is the full text of my e-mail to Kevin Feige:

*****

SUBJ: Eric Robert Nolan *IS* Wolverine!!!

Mr. Kevin Feige
President, Marvel Studios

Dear Mr. Feige:

I am writing to you today about an immeasurable benefit that I can bring to the Marvel Cinematic Universe — a definitive silver screen interpretation of Marvel’s iconic character, Wolverine. Behold, please, the photoshopped image of me attached to this e-mail, which shows that I am uniquely suited for the role. (To fully appreciate my uncanny likeness, Mr. Feige, I must ask you here to vocalize the classic sound effect “Snickety-snick” when viewing the photo.) Although my body at age 49 might look slightly different than conventional representations of the character, I feel certain that modern CGI could remedy this.

I studied extensively with the Mary Washington College Drama Department between 1991 and 1994. I studied comic books at the same time — outside of an academic program but with an unbridled enthusiasm I never showed any of my formal studies. I also periodically defeated my formidable classmate John Matthias in debates about whether Wolverine could beat Silver Surfer — and even wrestled him about it in the lobby of New Hall before the 1994 Fall Formal. (I surprised him with the classic tactic with which you are doubtlessly familiar, Wolverine’s roaring, berserker leap.)

There are other benefits as well, should you choose to employ me for this role — I am highly skilled with puns, free-verse poetry, and deconstructing arguments made by Donald Trump supporters. I feel certain that all three of these skills would promote an enlightened and entertained workplace. I will contact your office next week to determine whether an audition can be arranged.

Kindest regards,

Eric Robert Nolan
Roanoke, Virginia

ericrnolan@gmail.com
https://ericrobertnolan.com/

P.S. — You did an outstanding job with “What If …?,” by the way!  It’s truly amazing stuff!

wolvey

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Roanoke, Virginia, September 2021

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Beside Williamsburg Road downtown.

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“An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” by W. B. Yeats (read by Eric Robert Nolan)

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We were a nation of neighbors.

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September 11, 2001.

We were a different country then: wounded, but undivided; scarred, but undeterred; enraged, but not at one another.  The America that rallied and unified in the wake of the terror attacks seems as vanished now as the Towers themselves.

We were a nation of neighbors, as though the dust thrust up from a burning New York City had cleared to reveal an even greater Republic.  We huddled together under the smoke blowing up from the charnel pit, then reached to lift one another to higher ground.  We bolstered one another with whatever words we could find, in the interminable spaces after our dead had fallen silent, after the soot in the emptied streets had muted even our own footfalls.

We rose up as one to retaliate — and struck out across the world with a single fist.  We were more than a superpower, more than an aggrieved people.  We were these United States.

I want to believe that we can be that country — those people — again.

That is why today, fully two decades later, I will picture who we were.  And I will tell myself, never forget.

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Kim Carpenter, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

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This is me reading comments on social media.

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You can actually see my glasses starting to fog up.

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