Five Years at The New York Times

I can't believe that this week marks my fifth year at The New York Times. It feels like yesterday when I nervously walked into the colossal building at 620 Eighth Avenue in midtown New York City and attended my orientation where I got a free T-shirt, a tote bag along with a small notebook/journal for taking notes, which I did a lot of for the first few days.

This was taken by my buddy Eric shortly after I started working at the paper on Oct. 28, 2019.

In honor of my five years there, I decided to highlight one of my favorite articles from each year that I have been writing/reporting for the paper. It's no surprise that many of the stories involved animals.

During my first few weeks at the paper in New York City, I cowrote this wild and fun tale with my work desk buddy Aimee Ortiz about three cows that were thought to have been swept away during Hurricane Dorian in North Carolina but they actually had been enjoying life and grazing at a state park in the Outer Banks. The article was very popular among readers. Here is the story.

In 2020, after returning to work after my open heart surgery (which I shared with readers), I learned about Fat Bear Week in Alaska. It's an annual contest where people vote for their favorite fat bear as they pack on the pounds for winter by chowing down on fresh salmon. I had so much fun learning about the contest and about the bears at Katmai National Park. Here is my story. A runner up for my favorite story that year was an obituary I wrote about twin brothers in Texas who died hours apart in the same hospital (different floors) after contracting Covid in the early days of the pandemic. They lived together, worked together and slept in the same bed. They were literally inseparable. Here is that obituary.

In 2021 for LGBT pride month, I wrote a round up of Pride firsts, the first time an organization, a city and even the White House honored Pride such as the San Francisco Giants wearing rainbow-hued baseball caps and uniforms that season and young authors who published their first books about what it's like being gay, trans and nobinary. Here is my story.

In 2022, I wrote an obituary on Spanish trans actress Isabel Torres who found fame late in life for her portrayal of Cristina Ortiz Rodriguez, who was a beloved trans Spanish TV personality in the mid-1990s. I had watched Ms. Torres on the HBO Max Spanish series "Veneno" which chronicled the life of Ms. Rodriguez. I was so moved by Ms. Torres's acting, so strong and sympathetic in her portrayal of Ms. Rodriguez, that I offered to write the obituary which is here.

In 2023, I teamed up with my colleague Lauren McCarthy to track down some of the 400 beagles that had been rescued from a facility in Virginia where they were locked in cages and used for breeding and research. The beagles have found happy homes where they are thriving and discovering what it's like to live outside a cage and the freedom of taking walks and running around a backyard. Here is the story. 

My favorite story of 2024 so far focused on the late Desi Arnaz, beloved star of the sitcom "I Love Lucy." My story was about how the city of Miami Beach was honoring the entertainer for his early years in the city where he learned English at St. Patrick Catholic School and became a musician. At the Park Avenue nightclub/restaurant, he popularized the Conga which was his first brush with fame before Broadway and Hollywood and his wife Lucille Ball. I had no idea Mr. Arnaz had so many local connections in Miami Beach where I grew up. Here is my story.

The photo below was taken in June after I returned to the newsroom in NYC for a week to reconnect with my colleagues, reporters and editors. A tourist was kind enough to take the photo for me.

One Year at The New York Times

I can't believe that I recently marked my one-year anniversary at The New York Times where I am a reporter on the Express Desk. We cover a mix of national, politics, business, sports and international news, stories that appeal to a broad online audience.

It's been a wild, fun ride covering mostly breaking news (police shootings, wildfires, hurricanes), serious stories about race (the removal of confederate statues and symbols), viral stories (fat bears, shark attacks, ancient gators) and profiles (a super ambitious Florida valedictorian.) My stories are published online but some trickle into the print edition (and I can't resist saving those pieces as you'll see below. My backpack is filled with copies of my print stories.) Here are some highlights from the past year beginning with Mystery Shipwreck Dates to Before Revolutionary War, Researcher Says

Cuffing of Black Miami Doctor Was Justified, Review Finds

Atlanta Police Chief Resigns After Officer Shoots and Kills a Black Man

Great White Shark Kills Maine Swimmer in Rare Attack

The Votes Cast, a Fat Bear Is Crowned

New Hampshire Poet Laureate Lifts Her City’s Covid-19 Advisories

Dated 1920, a Postcard Finally Gets Delivered

A Poem From the Heart

Writers write in all forms. Short stories. Books. Essays. Blog entries. Poems.  News articles. Although I mostly write daily stories for the Sun Sentinel about whatever is trending or what people are talking about on social media each morning, I really enjoy creative writing whether that's writing novels or poetry. 

My interest in poetry began in elementary school for school assignments but I found myself writing my own at home in a Trapper Keeper notebook.  I enjoyed writing poems that rhymed, experimented in the short form haiku. The challenge and fun for me was trying to compact what you wanted to say in a lyrical way (hey, that rhymed.)  That interest and curiosity continued in middle school, high school and college.  I saved all my poems in my journals. And every now and then, I pen a poem out of inspiration or for a special occasion. (again, another rhyme).

One of those special occasions was for my lovely goddaughter Jessica and her husband Billy. Four years ago, they asked if I could write something to read at their wedding on Cape Cod.  I was truly touched and honored. I knew they had read my Boston Globe articles over the years and maybe one of my books.  But a poem for a wedding? Where would I start? This was new to me and I'm no Richard Blanco. I thought, this is a really BIG responsibility and I had to get it just right (or write.) And what if they don't like it? Again, a huge creative assignment for a one time occasion. I couldn't mess this up. If I did, I would be permanently exiled from Massachusetts and perhaps New England...FOREVER!

So I did what I usually do when I start working on a story or a book, I did some research by interviewing them.  We set up a time after work and we chatted on speaker phone - they in Weymouth, MA and me in my little apartment in Coral Gables. I asked them how they met, what sparked their interested in one another, their first date, second date, their upbringings, the big proposal.  Some of it I knew from memory but I wanted to hear it in their words so I could incorporate that into the copy. They also didn't want me to share the poem with them ahead of time. They wanted to hear it for the first time in front of their guests.  More pressure!

After a few weeks of writing and rewriting in my notepad, I presented this to Jessica's mom Mari who is my godmother and first cousin (more like a fabulous and loving older sister to me.)  I emailed her the poem and she called me right back and said in her sweet Boston-Cuban accent, "It's perfect, Johnny. Don't change a thing. They are going to love it."

And with the huge vote of confidence, I rehearsed reading the poem out loud a couple of times at home and then in front of the mirror at the Hampton Inn Cape Cod the night before the wedding and the day of. (the selfie down below was taken in between my takes in front of the mirror before the wedding.)

When the big day came that May 30, this is what I read at the podium before the guests on a sunny breezy May afternoon by the water of Harwich, Massachusetts.  I was nervous, excited and honored all at the same time. It was a day I will never forget.  And I think I got some future requests as a wedding poet for hire. The poem starts on the jump page below. (A heads up as you read it, Mac and Cam refer to two English bulldogs and the Pats are the New England Patriots.)

Blast from the past: The Real World Miami

A broadcast TV friend who is a big fan of The Real World sent me these old Real World Miami clips which feel like another lifetime (and hairstyle) ago compared to the new Real World cast. If you watch closely in the clips you'll see a younger familiar face with a crew cut wondering what the heck is he doing in this crazy house with seven complete opposites off the Venetian causeway and dating Dan Renzi.

In the video below, I appear in the beginning and then later on at 10:38.

In this one, I appear at the 4:12 mark.