Ashley Herzog
Bio
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Stories (35/0)
The Robber Baron's Son
I surfaced just in time to see the second funnel collapse. The explosions coming from inside the ship were deafening, punctuated by the tearing and twisting of metal. Even in total darkness, I could see the ship start to split in two. Sparks and flames shot into the air. The people still on board looked like a swarm of bees, hovering around the stern.
By Ashley Herzog26 days ago in Fiction
Big Tech can’t save you: modern lessons we can take from the Titanic disaster
I got into a debate recently, via Titanic-related Facebook groups, about whether the 1997 movie would be a blockbuster hit if it were released today. My opinion was no, it would not. Why? Because we’re living through an age of wokeness run riot. I’m pretty progressive on race and equality issues, and I take pride in being self-educated on these issues; I’m also determined to remain teachable. But I also respect historical accuracy. James Cameron’s movie portrays the end of the Gilded Age in all its honor and glory (Titanic nerds: do you see what I did there?) as well as its dark underbelly of indifference and inequality. The movie shows, in painstaking detail, the era’s veneer of elegance and sophistication combined with rampant hypocrisy and greed. Titanic is historically accurate, and history is out with the woke folks. The market for historical movies and novels is shrinking, and not because of lack of audience interest — books like Flags of Our Fathers went on to become smash hits after being turned down by every publishing house in New York. It’s the movie studios and publishing conglomerates that have decided history is, literally, so last century.
By Ashley Herzogabout a month ago in Lifehack
Father Thomas Byles, the Titanic’s Hero Priest
April 15th, 2022 marks the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. More than a century later, this story still captivates imaginations around the world, inspiring prolific fiction and nonfiction, movies and musicals. Maybe it’s because, in the words of James Cameron, director of the 1997 Titanic film, “It was like a great novel that really happened.” The sinking of the Titanic was a “lifeboat ethics” scenario involving actual lifeboats. Looking back on the disaster allows people to ask themselves, “Why did this passenger or crew member do what they did? What would I have done?”
By Ashley Herzog2 months ago in FYI
Before Erin Brockovich, there was you
Leo Gorie must have known he was dying when he started on the mission of his life. He wasn’t wrong to think his fate was sealed and he had nothing to lose. He had spent decades installing asbestos as a construction worker and president of the Building Trades Union. Despite repeated assurances that asbestos was safe, the asbestos fibers had invaded Leo’s lungs. He had cancer.
By Ashley Herzog2 months ago in Families
The Arabian booth at the Cleveland Bazaar
Cleveland, Ohio, 1865 It was the dead of winter, but the air inside Atheneum Hall was warm and humid. The air smelled like cigar smoke and desire. Bridget watched as gentlemen callers entered her booth—the Turkish booth. She wore an Arabian Princess costume, which exposed her breasts and belly. Having grown up in the cold, boggy West of Ireland, she never imagined princesses wore so little clothing.
By Ashley Herzog3 months ago in Fiction
When "Street Thugs" Were Irish
Anyone who pays attention to media headlines in 2022 knows that crime rates are up. As Americans emerged from COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, another crisis ensued: a sudden uptick in the number of murders and other violent crimes, including carjackings and armed robberies. In 2021, Cleveland’s murder rate hit a 30-year high.
By Ashley Herzog4 months ago in FYI
What happened to the outrage over Black Friday?
I’ll never forget the Friday after Thanksgiving, 2011. I was vaguely aware of the pseudo-holiday known as Black Friday, but I had seldom participated. On that day, however, I had to go to a local big-box store to get diapers and baby wipes for my then four-week-old daughter, Catherine. As the sun sank in the dreary November sky over Toledo, Ohio, I noticed traffic in this small Midwestern city had slowed to a crawl more than a mile from the mall.
By Ashley Herzog6 months ago in The Swamp
What I learned from the murder of Phil Masterson
I’ll never forget the phone call I answered, mid-morning on a weekday, in the fall of 2011. It was the day after Labor Day, and I’d spent the weekend trying to ignore my looming sense of dread. I blamed my pregnant brain—I was eight months along—and got back to the daily grind. Until I got the call.
By Ashley Herzog6 months ago in Confessions
I don't date guys who love horror movies
When I was 11 years old, I wrote a horror novel. At nearly 70,000 words long, it's the longest work I've ever created, slightly longer than the novel I wrote about my Irish ancestors when I was well into my 30s. I wrote it in one month, between September and October, finishing two weeks shy of my 12th birthday. I typed it all on a CD-ROM program for kids, writing up to 5,000 words a day between school and volleyball practice. The story was a murder mystery set in rural Western Ireland, where all my maternal ancestors came from.
By Ashley Herzog7 months ago in Humans
Harold Lowe, the unsung hero of the Titanic disaster
I just finished Titanic Valour: The Life of Fifth Officer Harold Lowe, the biography of the 28-year-old Titanic officer who is best known as "the guy with the gun." Most people remember the shooting scene from the movie. It's a turning point scene; it's when Cal tells his servant that things are "starting to fall apart" and this is more serious than they thought. But that's pretty much all you see of Harold Lowe. Lowe was such a minor character that few people realize the "guy with the gun" is also the guy who returns to the wreck to pick up survivors. (In the movie, he finds Rose floating on a door; in real life, it was a Chinese guy they found atop a door - a scene that James Cameron cut from the movie.) No one even calls him by his full name. In fact, the only time Lowe's name is ever mentioned in the movie is when Officer Lightoller says, "Mr. Lowe, man this boat," and hands him his revolver. This is right after Lightoller tells a group of unruly men he'll "shoot them all like dogs," while Lowe comes across as Lightoller's polite, level-headed junior officer.
By Ashley Herzog7 months ago in FYI
