:: Home
:: New Columns
:: Fiction
:: Nonfiction
:: Playwright
:: Poetry
:: Children’s
:: About DH
David Hoppe is available
for freelance writing and editing assignments; and consulting with commercial and nonprofit cultural organizations. Resume and references available upon request.
© 2006-2023
David Hoppe
[email protected]
Site managed by
Owl's Head Business Services
|
:: Nonfiction
"You surely know what the great sportswriter Red Smith said about writing, that it was easy, that all you did was open a vein and bleed.
You bleed real good, and your heart is where the
blood comes from.
If you ever wonder what in hell you think you're doing with your life, let me remind you that you are telling people as reasonable and humane as yourself what they desperately need to hear, that others feel
as they do."
-- Kurt Vonnegut
Magazine Articles
Each one of these essays treats an iconic Indiana subject. Taken together, they begin to
describe my particular Indiana sense of place.
Traces - A publication of the Indiana Historical Society
ArtsIndiana (Winter 2001)
NUVO newsweekly
- New NUVO columns can be found here
- Factories ain't farms (October 20, 2015)
- Dems play Vegas, the Cubs' fearless process (October 15, 2015)
- Indiana's Senate Dems to lead on civil rights (October 13, 2015)
- State does right by Dunes State Park (October 8, 2015)
- Guns are not cool (October 5, 2015)
- Emails from Mike Pence (October 1, 2015)
- Strange days for our Colts (September 28, 2015)
- Pope Francis' American adventure (September 25, 2015)
- The Ohio River's monster bloom (September 22, 2015)
- Cutting the Oak (September 17, 2015)
- What to ask The Donald (September 14, 2015)
- Another 9/11 (September 11, 2015)
- Hoping is Pence's Way of leadership (September 8, 2015)
- Weird dreams along Lake Michigan (September 4, 2015)
- Murder, televised (August 27, 2015)
- Solar Power in Indiana, finally (August 25, 2015)
- Fireworks tourism (August 20, 2015)
- Sustainable Local Foods Indiana (August 17, 2015)
- T.Y. Hilton's big deal (August 14, 2015)
- Warren Beatty's Bulworth (August 10, 2015)
- Republicans debate, Jon Stewart bids adieu (August 7, 2015)
- Joe Donnelly's massive mistake (August 4, 2015)
- Coal, like Mike Pence, is so 20th century (July 30, 2015)
- The judge has ruled (July 28, 2015)
- Living while black (July 23, 2015)
- Carson's Clinton endorsement (July 21, 2015)
- What's wrong with Indiana's surplus? (July 17, 2015)
- New York's Midwest awakening (July 13, 2015)
- Trump! (July 10, 2015)
- Michael Kaiser's Curtains (July 7, 2015)
- How MASH became The Office (July 2, 2015)
- Bless Bill Levin (June 29, 2015)
- We are still Americans (June 29, 2015)
- Pope Francis could be talking about Gary (June 26, 2015)
- Caitlyn and Rachel (June 16, 2015)
- Our first black bear since 1871 (June 16, 2015)
- Pete Visclosky's vision For Indiana's shoreline (June 8, 2015)
- FIFA (June 4, 2015)
- Is this Glenda Ritz's time? (June 1, 2015)
- Another Season has begun (May 25, 2015)
- It's still Wrigley Field (May 20, 2015)
- DNR gets an earful about Dunes State Park (May 15, 2015)
- Why Mad Max? Why Now? (May 5, 2015)
- Mike Pence and the Koch Brothers (May 1, 2015)
- Hemp: still too scary for Indiana (April 24, 2015)
- Letter from up north (April 14, 2015)
- Republicans vs cities, round 2 (April 10, 2015)
- This Crisis is too good to waste (March 31, 2015)
- Mea knucklehead (March 27, 2015)
- Religious freedom (March 24, 2015)
- Business versus bigotry (March 19, 2015)
- Jefferson Airplane (March 17, 2015)
- IDEM: Indiana Denial of Environmental Management (March 13, 2015)
- Ending Amtrack's Hoosier State (March 11, 2015)
- RFRA: Not over yet (March 7, 2015)
- The Oscar's cultural arithmetic (March 2, 2015)
- Legislature gets this one right (February 26, 2015)
- Listen up: on strike at BP (February 24, 2015)
- Schools: a never-ending crisis (February 16, 2015)
- No mean idea this (February 10, 2015)
- Marriage promotion? Really? (February 6, 2015)
- HIP 2.0 (February 1, 2015)
- Mike Pence's alternative press (January 29, 2015)
- Investing in nonprofits-like Angie's List (January 24, 2015)
- Middle class economics? (January 22, 2015)
- Go Colts (really!) (January 19, 2015)
- Plowing over local control (January 12, 2015)
- Je suis Charlie (January 8, 2015)
- That Red Gold TV spot (January 6, 2015)
- Drunk or annoying: What comes first? (December 24, 2014)
- Charging admission at the IMA (December 19, 2014)
- What local GOP wants from Santa (December 17, 2014)
- It's a vulnerable life (December 12, 2014)
- America the bully-ful (December 10, 2014)
- The Hoosier Way (November 24, 2014)
- Shaving with a brush (November 17, 2014)
- Liberal Arts (November 13, 2014)
- In rich we trust (November 6, 2014)
- Election Day (October 31, 2014)
- Jack Bruce, no surrender (October 28, 2014)
- When is Indy going to get this right? (October 23, 2014)
- Pity the mayor (October 16, 2014)
- Seat belt violations (October 9, 2014)
- Cluster f@#k (October 2, 2014)
- Wrigley's bleachers tumbling down (September 30, 2014)
- War again (September 24, 2014)
- NFL's one percent solution (September 17, 2014)
- CVS dumps tobacco (September 12, 2014)
- Back to the future (September 3, 2014)
- Labor Day 2014 (August 28, 2014)
- Militarized America (August 21, 2014)
- Robin Williams: Rest, no peace (August 13, 2014)
- Art and change (August 7, 2014)
- The Gray Lady gets high (July 30, 2014)
- Right to farm is right to pollute (July 25, 2014)
- Missing the point about Hobby Lobby (July 22, 2014)
- Obamacare versus Pence (July 17, 2014)
- LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony: Essayists (July 14, 2014)
- Analog or Digital? (July 10, 2014)
- The Broad Ripple Shootings (July 6, 2014)
- Gay marriage bash(ing) (June 30, 2014)
- Freedom Summer (June 25, 2014)
- Trigger warning (June 18, 2014)
- Kicking and screaming about climate change (June 11, 2014)
- America the weird (June 3, 2014)
- How happy are we? (May 16, 2014)
- Mitch and Mike (May 13, 2014)
- Is the war on coal (May 7, 2014)
- Adios, Common Core (April 29, 2014)
- Nonprofits under stress (April 23, 2014)
- Hoosiers pay more for less (April 16, 2014)
- Dear Indiana Democrats (April 2, 2014)
- Bringing guns to school (March 25, 2014)
- Pot at the State Fair? (March 18, 2014)
- The MSA Site (March 14, 2014)
- Hillary, really? (March 5, 2014)
- What's so hard about mass transit? (February 28, 2014)
- Campaigns and cash (February 25, 2014)
- A ticket on a snowy evening (February 22, 2014)
- Michael Sam's profile in courage (February 13, 2014)
- Capitol of mystery meat (February 12, 2014)
- It was fifty years ago today...(February 10, 2014)
- Indiana's date with destiny (January 29, 2014)
- Michael Jordan in Indy (January 15, 2014)
- States first, country second (January 8, 2014)
- 2013: Year of improvisation (January 1, 2014)
- What are people for? (December 18, 2013)
- A guaranteed income (December 11, 2013)
- Scrooge's washcloths (December 11, 2013)
- Obama's failure (December 4, 2013)
- Kennedy's shadow (November 27, 2013)
- Indy versus Indiana (November 13, 2013)
- Alternative Indiana (November 6, 2013)
- It's still a man's world at Wabash (November 6, 2013)
- Making healthcare unaffordable (October 30, 2013)
- Daniels still the man (October 16, 2013)
- What Republicans really want (October 10, 2013)
- Obamacare: finally! At last! (October 2, 2013)
- A poor state for girls (September 25, 2013)
- Holding parents truly accountable (September 18, 2013)
- Empire is a drag (September 11, 2013)
- Super Bowl redux (September 4, 2013)
- The real cost of a cool dorm (August 28, 2013)
- Suing Lance Armstrong (August 21, 2013)
- Flipping burgers (August 14, 2013)
- Fixing Detroit (August 7, 2013)
- Anthony and Huma, and Will and Kate (July 31, 2013)
- Guns win the Martin case (July 24, 2013)
- The library of the future (July 17, 2013)
- The madness of King Mike (July 10, 2013)
- Standing Up (July 3, 2013)
- Leaving the old neighborhood (June 19, 2013)
- Illinois goes to pot (June 12, 2013)
- An iPad of one’s own (June 5, 2013)
- Not like the others (May 29, 2013)
- The big government perplex (May 22, 2013)
- Droned in Garfield Park (May 15, 2013)
- Osama bin Laden and climate change (May 8, 2013)
- Money talking in Broad Ripple (May 1, 2013)
- We could lose passenger rail service (April 24, 2013)
- The trouble with voting (April 17, 2013)
- Who’s a rock star? (April 10, 2013)
- The People’s Budget (April 3, 2013)
- Those cuts at the IMA (March 13, 2013)
- Pence v. Republicans (March 3, 2013)
- George Bush's Paintings (February 27, 2013)
- Shining light on what we eat (February 20, 2013)
- Guns and cigarettes (February 13, 2013)
- Republican boondoggle over transit (February 6, 2013)
- Women in combat (January 30, 2013)
- Programmed to fail (January 23, 2013)
- Constitutional Showdown (January 16, 2013)
- Thomas Easterly. Again. (January 9, 2013)
- Is local food trumping art? (January 2, 2013)
- Prayers are not enough (December 26, 2012)
- Michigan, meet Indiana (December 19, 2012)
- Props for Jim Irsay (December 12,2012)
- Memo to Pence: Legalize it (November 21, 2012)
- Where the people are (November 14, 2012)
- Dreams for the next 4 years (November 7, 2012)
- Women in jeopardy (October 31, 2012)
- The 10 worst college majors (October 24, 2012)
- Mike’s full of it (October 10, 2012)
- Smart phones and sustainability (October 3, 2012)
- How big is Indianapolis, really? (September 26, 2012)
- The ISO casts a shadow (September 19, 2012)
- The Democrats' Turn (September 12, 2012)
- Republican idealism (September 5, 2012)
- A jobs program that could work (August 29, 2012)
- To arms! To arms! (August 22, 2012)
- Getting it right (July 4, 2012)
- John Strinka has guts (June 27 , 2012)
- Art2Art (June 20, 2012)
- Steve Libman has a point (June 6 , 2012)
- Even Cubs fans have their limits (May 30 , 2012)
- John Gregg loses it (May 23 , 2012)
- Tea Party dreams on (May 16, 2012)
- Math and Science crisis (May 9 , 2012)
- Poetry meets power (May 2, 2012)
- Admiring the Amish (April 25 , 2012)
- A Mad Men moment (April 18 , 2012)
- Thanks for the memories, Mitch (April 11 , 2012)
- Want to get healthcare right? (April 4, 2012)
- I want to hug Mitt Romney (March 28 , 2012)
- Public safety shortfall (March 21, 2012)
- Investing in the environment (March 14 , 2012)
- Republicans AWOL (March 7 , 2012)
- Pity Dick Lugar (February 29, 2012)
- Talking about class (February 22, 2012)
- Peekaboo public transit (February 15, 2012)
- Peyton Manning: champion (February 8 , 2012)
- Government or business (February 1 , 2012)
- TURF's up (January 25, 2012)
- Are schools the problem (January 18 , 2012)
- The unmaking of the president (January 11, 2012)
- Mass transit and public education (December 28, 2011)
- Home from Iraq (December 21 , 2011)
- Not about bikes (December 14, 2011)
- Breadth, depth and downright beauty (December 7 , 2011)
- Occupy the Super Bowl (November 23, 2011)
- The Penn State scandal (November 16, 2011)
- Dear mayor (November 9, 2011)
- Maxwell Anderson's IMA (November 2, 2011)
- The Gallup poll and pot (October 26, 2011)
- IPS is done (October 19, 2011)
- What would Steve Jobs do? (October 12, 2011)
- Thank you, health insurers (October 5, 2011)
- Tar sands oil in Indiana (September 28, 2011)
- Human scale (September 21, 2011)
- Kennedy better kick it up (September 14, 2011)
- Dick Cheney's 9/11 book tour (September 7, 2011)
- Cutting the budget, cutting safety (August 31, 2011)
- Arts debacles (August 24, 2011)
- For the people, or profits (August 3, 2011)
- Seeing The Tree of Life (July 27, 2011)
- Free to be stupid (July 20, 2011)
- Here comes the mayor's race (July 13, 2011)
- Making love without making babies (July 6, 2011)
- Getting used to war (June 29, 2011)
- The Palladium's boffo budget (June 22, 2011)
- What is college for? (June 15, 2011)
- The house on Memory Lane (June 8, 2011)
- Peoples' art (June 1, 2011)
- Indiana in The New York Times (May 25, 2011)
- Mitch Daniels can count (May 18, 2011)
- Mayoral control of IPS (May 11, 2011)
- The high price of gas (May 4, 2011)
- Dump Trump (April 27, 2010)
- Paul Ryan's Gilded Age (April 20, 2010)
- Paul Ryan's wayback machine (April 20, 2011)
- Farewell to another Borders (April 13, 2011)
- Great to be straight or unborn (April 6, 2010)
- Our streets suck (March 30, 2010)
- Living in the future (March 23, 2010)
- Rahm Emanuel talks the arts (March 16, 2011)
- Government walk-outs (March 9, 2011)
- Saying yes to pot (March 2, 2010)
- These Republicans ain't no party (February 23, 2010)
- The opportunistic Mike Delph (February 16, 2010)
- The Palladium's failure of imagination (February 9, 2010)
- It's not about guns (February 2, 2011)
- Townships' time to go (January 26, 2011)
- Mitch Daniels' Indiana (January 19, 2010)
- Legislative food fight (January 12, 2010)
- Educational testing (January 5, 2010)
- The Caine Mutiny (December 29, 2010)
- When it is better to receive (December 22, 2010)
- High-speed rail blind-sided (December 15, 2010)
- Airport pat-downs and WikiLeaks (December 8, 2010)
- No waiting for Superman (December 1, 2010)
- If it’s Christmas, it must be The Beatles (November 24, 2010)
- Sticking it to Indy Connect (November 17, 2010)
- Rand Paul and the Me Party (November 10, 2010)
- Fred Wilson’s “E Pluribus Unum” (November 3, 2010)
- This election matters (October 27, 2010)
- The Livability Challenge (October 20, 2010)
- Christamore House down, Lilly up (October 13, 2010)
- The North of South development (October 6, 2010)
- Reforming health care reform (September 29, 2010)
- The parking meter gambit (September 22, 2010)
- Mayors Daley and Ballard (Septemeber 15, 2010)
- Yawn, election's coming (Septemeber 8, 2010)
- The Indianapolis Department of Cultural Affairs (Septemeber 1, 2010)
- Barack and Blago (August 25, 2010)
- The cost of climate change (August 18, 2010)
- The arts, or else! (August 11, 2010)
- Taxing the rich (August 4, 2010)
- Ballard over a barrel (July 21, 2010)
- Ringo is 70 (July 14, 2010)
- Carmel's Palladium (July 7, 2010)
- Our runaway military (June 30, 2010)
- Waiting on the oil spill (June 23,2010)
- Dan Coats' excellent lobbying adventure (June 16, 2010)
- High school is boring (June 9, 2010)
- Blooming algae (June 2, 2010)
- Raymond Chandler calling (May 26, 2010)
- Ballard gets it right (May19, 2010)
- BP is Indiana's problem, too (May 12, 2010)
- Taxes and aliens (May 5, 2010)
- The fight for public transit (April 28, 2010)
- Property tax caps = library closures (April 21, 2010)
- The Butler Way (April 14, 2010)
- Good times for gun owners (April 7, 2010)
- Spitting on health care reform (March 31, 2010)
- 20 years: A beautiful friendship (March 24, 2010)
- The Cubs and crocuses (March 17, 2010)
- There's a tea party in my head (March 10, 2010)
- The Tenth Amendment movement (March 3, 2010)
- Talking about pot (February 24, 2010)
- The Toyota-H1N1-Super Bowl blues (February 17, 2010)
- War is our drug of choice (February 10, 2010)
- Zoning in Indianapolis is broken (February 3, 2010)
- Bayh vs. Pence (January 27, 2010)
- Getting trimmed, tree-wise (January 20, 2010)
- ReLegalize it! (January 13, 2010)
- Change is us (January 1, 2010
Columns Archive: View Columns from 2009-2002
Read more of Hoppe's work for Nuvo.
On the outside, at least, suburban life seems built to defy whatever it is that makes narrative
compelling. So in life and art we resort to other, interior ways of escape. This swatch of
autobiography is about coming to terms with a time and place, in my case, Mt. Prospect, Illinois.
|