TPP Editor / Contributor Bios

Editors

(POLITICS, SPORTS, Editor-in-Chief) Howard Megdal covers baseball and basketball for SNY.tv, MLBTradeRumors.com, and NYBaseballDigest.com. He has written for The New York Times, ESPN.com and numerous other publications. His book about Jewish baseball players, “The Baseball Talmud,” was published by HarperCollins and is available wherever books are sold. Howard co-hosts the radio program New York Baseball Digest with Mike Silva; Podcasts are available on iTunes. He has been a guest on a number of radio stations, including WFAN and WVOX. Howard’s is the Poet Laureate of AmazinAvenue.com. You can reach Howard at hmegdal@yahoo.com. [previous writings]

(HUMOR) Molly Schoemann grew up in New York City and moved to Boston by way of Honolulu (possibly she took a wrong turn somewhere). She most recently moved to Garner, NC. What can I say? She likes moving. Molly began writing humor and satire during her freshman year at Bard College. Visit Molly at: www.mollyschoemann.wordpress.com. [previous writings]

(ARTS/CULTURE EDITRIX) Jillian Lovejoy Lowery graduated from a prominent liberal arts college in 2000, with a degree in English and a concentration in non-fiction writing. Since then, she has worked in public relations for various different organizations, including a publishing house, a mental healthcare provider and a small liberal arts college. When not fashioning press releases or answering media inquiries, she immerses herself in books, music and film, and is a sucker for magazines ranging from the New Yorker to Us Weekly to Nylon. A resident of Pennsylvania, Jillian has three cats, five tattoos and a husband, all of which she likes very much. [previous writings]

(WEB) Chris Pummer worked for the Sun-Times Media Group for nearly six years writing sports, features and news, editing, designing and generally being a jack-of-all-trades. He’s also worked for various print and Internet publications, including a stint as Web editor for The Outside World. Chris is a 2003 graduate of Kansas State University and lives in the Chicago area with his wife Maggie and sons Liam and Quinn. [previous writings]

Contributors

Jessica Bader is an information junkie, always looking to gobble up more facts and ideas to fuel her own thought process. Spending three hours going through all of the links in her RSS reader at the end of the day isn’t a chore or a luxury; it’s just part of her daily routine. Jessica has blogged about the New York Mets at Chicks Dig the Pitchers’ Duel, Take the 7 Train and Amazin’ Avenue, and her commentary was featured in Graphical Player 2009. A lifelong New Yorker, Jessica graduated from NYU in 2008 and works as an actuary.  She relishes the opportunity to take part in the serious discussion here at Perpetual Post about issues of both grea00000……0.0.t and small importance, as we have more than enough brainpower to devote to economic policy and the latest episode of Gossip Girl. [previous writings]

Ted Berg works as the senior editorial producer for SNY.tv, where he writes the popular “Flushing Fussing” Mets column. He is a 2003 graduate of Georgetown University and received his Master’s in Arts and Culture from NYU, where he was proud to once submit a paper about the work of Dave Chappelle entitled “Heteroglossia, Bitches.” Ted is relentlessly self-aggrandizing and his clothes always match. He loves Taco Bell, funk music and television. [previous writings]

Akie Bermiss is a pianist, composer, and singer living and working in New York City.  He has been a Man of Letters since he was still in his small-clothes but began writing music criticism in his college years.  He is a graduate of Bard College with  degree in music composition.  While there he also studied American Music (read: tin pan alley, broadway musicals, and jazz) and writing (read: wrote some bad poetry and called it good). To his friends, he is considered a musical snob of the highest order; to his enemies — a musical charlatan of the basest variety.  Among other things he is also the author of a children’s book (“I Hate to Be Sick” — out on Scholastic), a lover of science fiction, a huge fan of cigars, and he takes his bourbon: neat. [previous writings]

Jason Clinkscales has the unique – or sad – distinction of having never scoring a point in a regulated basketball game. He is a staff sportswriter for the New York Beacon, where along with having covered several New York area teams, he is the primary reporter for the NFL Giants. He also maintains the blog, A Sports Scribe, where he takes a look into not only games and players, but the business, media and the randomly funny in sports. His work has been featured in The Norman Einsteins and is one of the few New York City natives that actually loves Boston. He is a graduate of Babson College.

Jon Daly’s writing has appeared online at websites such as Baseball Think Factory and The Hardball Times. Jon is also the sole contributor to the blog Designated Sitter. (http://designatedsitter.blogspot.com/) He has also written several short biographies of baseball players that have appeared online or in books, including ones on Billy Southworth and Jim Willoughby. He Tweets @designatedsittr and can be reached at jon31768@gmail.com.

Stephon Johnson is a staff writer for the New York Amsterdam News. His work has appeared in Beyond Race Magazine and Baeble Music. His favorite recording artists are Michael Jackson, Tool, Everything But The Girl, The Roots, Kanye West, Stevie Wonder, Broken Social Scene and Herbert. He lives in The Bronx.  [previous writings]

Steve Kornacki draws paychecks by writing abut politics and his work can currently be seen in the New York Observer. He was born and grew up in Groton, Massachusetts, a town best known as the setting for one random scene in “The Next Karate Kid” (1994). He enjoys dinner by candlelight, long walks, holding hands, and oh yes – he hates yo-yos. He’s also been known to sob uncontrollably whenever he watches this. [previous writings]

Lilit Marcus is the editor-in-chief of savetheassistants.com, a website that provides support, humor, advice, and more for office peons. She’s also the author of creatively titled Save the Assistants: A Guide for Surviving the Workplace, which will be published by Hyperion in April 2010. A Brooklynite by way of North Carolina, she loves Bojangle’s fried chicken and screaming at cab drivers who turn corners too quickly.

Jeff Morrow lives in Arlington, Virginia, and is completing degrees in law and public policy from Georgetown University. Originally from South Jersey, Morrow attended Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass. There he refined his skills as policy wonk and comedy writer, two interests that would prove indispensable in his post-graduation work as an unreformed paleoliberal in a conservative Washington, D.C. think tank. (The book he will never write about this experience is entitled “Fish Out of Water: A Liberal in a Conservative Tank.”) He has been published in several obscure policy journals, and served as an editor on the Georgetown Law Journal. Like a preposterous number of his co-contributors at the Perpetual Post, Morrow maintains a relationship with the New York Mets not entirely unlike Charlie Brown’s with his football. [previous writings]

Chris Needham spends his days working on the Hill working in a government affairs department.  He doesn’t like to think of himself as a lobbyist because he’s on the side of good.  You might recognize him from his late-night appearances on C-SPAN 3, which have earned him critical acclaim from his friends and family.  He used to blog at Capitol Punishment about his favorite mediocre baseball team, the Nationals.  The folks at NBCWashington.com managed to lure him out of retirement, and you can find him there, desperately trying not to swear in his posts. [previous writings]

Lucas O’Neill is closer to 30 than he is to finishing his master’s degree. A sportswriter for both entities you’ve heard of and those you have not, he fancies himself something of a comedian, performing with a pair of groups (or “troupes,” as they say in the biz) in Boston. He holds — but not on a regular basis…it’s surprisingly heavy — a B.A. in Political Science from Vassar College and is a grizzled veteran of the Vassar-Bard Skirmishes of 2001-03. His mom would like him to get on “the MyFace” to meet women with whom he can, presumably, produce grandchildren for her. She doesn’t think it’s funny when he says he’d prefer to remain aloof and die alone. [previous writings]

Steve Murphy is a nobody who has written nothing but the hilarious and well-received musical Treaty 321!, performed at Fringe NYC and at the Cabaret Theatre at Rutgers, New Brunswick.   As a writer of musicals, Steve is completely unqualified for this, but sees this as a plus thanks to his upbeat temperament and complete brain-in-a-jar disconnection from reality. [previous writings]

Zoë Rice grew up in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and has been writing steadily since she edited the Yale Daily News Magazine. After a hearty stint editing other authors’ books, her own novel, Pick Me Up, was published in 2006. Soon after, a watchful editor at mlb.com’s mlblogs recruited her to begin her popular Mets blog, Pick Me Up Some Mets. Today Zoë writes copy, ghostwrites, talks to strangers’ dogs on the street, gets excited about mundane things, and considers whether she should drink less coffee. She lives with her kitty near Union Square.

Emily Saidel graduated from the University of Chicago with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities: Theater and Performance Studies. After working for four years in the performing arts, she is now studying at New York University in the department of Media, Culture, and Communication.  [previous writings]

Dan Szymborski, born and raised in Baltimore, has been the Editor-in-Chief of the Baseball Think Factory since 2002 and feels the best way to put his education to use is to calculate baseball projections and play online poker.  A trained and thoroughly mediocre classical pianist, Dan strives to walk the fine line between being a bon vivant and being the subject of an intervention.

Dave Tomar is a Philadelphia-based freelance writer, an event coordinator and a snappy dresser.   As an academic consultant, Dave has helped countless dangerously underqualified students to advance to the next level of their education.  As a columnist, music critic and isolated psychopath writing from the fringe of society, Dave has been published in a wide array of print and online publications including Philly.com, Chorus and Verse, WonkaVision Magazine, Binformed Magazine, AroundPhilly.com, UWire and High Beam Research.  Dave is also a cofounder and COO of Philly-based promoters, Liquid Vinyl Productions and a content editor for the non-profit group, Solutions For Progress.  Dave is also fondly remembered for playing the title role in the long-running sitcom, Murphy Brown. [previous writings]