Jan. 12 was the 60th anniversary of the publication of Edward Hoagland’s first book. Over the decades he has forged an unparalleled career.

He was the Thin White Duke, the most glamorous man I’d ever seen. More glamorous than Bianca Jagger, and that was saying something in those Studio 54 years, glimpsed as a child from the Midwest.

Many people assume that litigation is the only way to resolve a difficult dispute. But there is another, often better alternative — mediation.

The youngest member of the Greater Boston film press corps, I got to spend a couple hours with Hitchcock aboard a theatre owner’s yacht.

I was one of three boys growing up. We ate a lot of meat, compared scars, had pushup contests and wrestled competitively.

Up at first light, three Vineyard birders met at Martha’s Vineyard Airport. Flip Harrington, Lanny McDowell and I were bound for Nantucket.