Selected op-eds, short fiction, humor and awards.

Op-Eds

The New York Times​

• "Let's Make Phone Tag a Medal Event"
• "Mets Memo: Pay 'em When They Win"
• "The Degree That Life Confers"

The New York Times Magazine

• "NYPD Blue" 

The Wall Street Journal

• "Manager's Journal: Benchmarking the Joneses"

The Asian Wall Street Journal

• "That's Not Your Colleague, That's Your Wife"

Boston Globe

• "Parking at Logan Airport - Now There's a Challenge"**

                 ** This humor piece generated a Letter to the Editor that advocated for environmentally-friendly parking solutions.

Boston Herald

• "Celeb grad speeches just an act"

• "Virtual world of trouble: Living in the Age of Too Much Information"
• "Stars and Stripes are Glorious, But Flag Day Gets No Respect"
• "Above All, Don't Give Appliances to the Wife on Mother's Day"
• "Why Daylights Saving Time Doesn't Mean Time to Spare"
• "Gall in the Family"
• "It's Time to Improve the Olympics"
• "Barbies You Won't be Seeing Soon"

Chicago Tribune

• "Baseball Should Sing a New Tune"*
• "Take Note: Holiday Shopping Tips for Shopping-Impaired Guys"
• "Are We Having Fun Yet?"
• "Got Any Big Plans for the Holiday?"
• "A Few Pointers on How to Improve the Winter Olympics"

* "Baseball Should Sing a New Tune" was cited in the Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal: "Panel 1: Stadium Finance, Naming Rights & Team Relocation," page 39.

New York Daily News

• "Avoiding the Holiday Guilt-a-thon"
• "Dig This Sales Pitch"
• "Ivy Tower Baseball"
• "Cold Shoulder for Winter Games"
• "Flag Day – Not a Banner Holiday"

Miami Herald

• "Random Thoughts: Sunday Smile - VCR That Flashes 11:00"
• "Random Thoughts: Olympics for Real People"


Other Major Market Newspapers

• Indianapolis Star: "A Toyota with a Mind of its Own"
• Philadelphia Inquirer: "Change the Rules, the Games, Everything: I am Not Watching Until . . ."
• Seattle Times: "How to Improve the Olympic Games"
• Portland Oregonian: "Boycott Olympics' Television"
• Washington Times: "Critic-at-Large: The Winter Olympics on Thin Ice"
• Arizona Republic: "The Degree That Life Confers"
• Honolulu Star-Bulletin: "Why I'm Not Watching the Olympics"
• Rocky Mountain News: "Olympics Put Our Endurance to Test"
• San Francisco Chronicle: "Wasting Time on the Olympics"
• Houston Chronicle: "If the Olympic Games Were Based on Real Life, More People Would Watch"
• Boston Business Journal: "Top-secret Business Consulting Tips from Bond, James Bond"

Regional Newspapers

• Salem News: "Worst summer vacations in history"
• Gloucester Times : "My View: My life is an open e-book"
• Boston Business Journal: "Top-secret Business Consulting Tips from Bond, James Bond"

Fiction

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

• "It’s All Relative at the Space-Time Café"*
• "Interview: Norman Birnbach on “It’s All Relative at the Space-Time Cafe”
• "Editor's Note for Nov/Dec 2015"

* This story was included in 51 new short fiction writers (out of 604 stories) reviewed by Rocket Stack Rank for the 2016 Campbell Award.

The Tenth Dimension (Israel)

• "Everything is Relative at Café Space-Time" ("הכל יחסי בקפה המרחב זמן" pages 48-51)

Militant Grammarian​

• "Homework Assignment #3"

Mr. Bull: Literary Magazine: Fiction​

• "Snowbanks"

Spaceports & Spidersilk Magazine

• "Wooden Kayak"

Humor

McSweeney's Internet Tendency

• "Things That Needed One More Iteration Before They Were Ready to Go to Market"

Splitsider/New York Magazine’s “Vulture”

• "Taylor Swifties"

The Big Jewel

• "The Gods Must Be Rebranded"

The Rumpus

• "Sleep Tips by a 90-Year-Old Insomniac" (edited by)*

* This piece was named one of "Rumpus Staff Favorites 2020" by Funny Women editor, Elissa Bassist.

Glossy News

• "Welcome to Fantasy Baseball 2019"
• "Shirt Tales Part II: How My Lucky Red Sox Shirt Helped the Patriots Win Super Bowl LIII"
• "Shirt Tales: How My Lucky Shirt Helped the Red Sox Win"
• "Lessons From This Year in Tech & Fashion"

BuzzFeed

• "20 Days That Either Served, Shouldn’t Have Served Or Should Never Serve As A Major Plot Point In A Hollywood Movie"

The Spoof

• "Bill O'Reilly Fights Back"
• "Fit for a King"

Sage News

• "Star Wars Would Be Different If Its Technology Was Like Ours"
• "Oscar Winner J.K. Simmons Makes New Demands Of Farmers Insurance Ad Agency"
• "Blatter Quits FIFA to Boost NFL Goodell's Integrity"

• "Nickname Guide for Newborn Princesses"

Broadcast

• The BullSheet: Scintillating Radio Show Prep: "Bull's Bits: BS Things That Needed 1 More Iteration Before Being Ready to Market"
• National College TV (NCTV): "TV News"
• XYQ-AM (1010 AM), Portland, OR, "Dream Weaver Show"
• Mind Extension University: "American Memory Project"
• Mind Extension University: "The Candidates on Education"

Magazine Articles

• Seventeen: "Campus Hate Speech Laws"

Awards

• Claymore Top Pick, Killer Nashville Writers Conference for "Stealing Time," 2024
• Honorable Mention in Fiction, Marblehead Literary Festival for "Waiting Room," 2024
• Honorable Mention in Fiction, Marblehead Literary Festival for "Shrine to the Cult of Joy,” 2023
• Best of Show, Fiction, Marblehead Literary Festival for "Empty Nights," 2019
• Honorable Mention in Fiction, Marblehead Literary Festival for "Wooden Kayak," 2016

Sample Reviews

• Kirkus Reviews: "Jacobs and Birnbach’s time-traveling adventure combines SF and elements of classic caper and heist stories. Fans of will find much to love here. Though the concept of going back into the past to meet younger versions of family members has been done, Jacobs and Birnbach’s characters are distinctive enough to keep this work
  feeling fresh. [This] solid, lighter SF yarn [is] a delight. A classic, well rendered."
  
• PW's BookLife Reviews: "Jacobs and Birnbach offer a classically surreal time-travel dilemma with this spirited coming-of-age adventure... Beneath the time-travel adventure, a more profound message about bridging generational gaps between parents and children and the long-lasting impact of choices resonates throughout. The mix of thrilling heist antics and comic drama (“Sometimes when you talk, I understand every word but none of the sentences”) will keep time-travel enthusiasts hooked. Takeaway: Fun time-travel romp pairing a 2020 teen with her 1980 dad to stop a heist."
  
• The Adventurine: "The Tiffany Diamond and Murf the Surf Inspired ‘Stealing Time’: M. J. Rose reviews the fabulously fun new heist novel" (Nov. 19, 2024)
• Literally Lori B (via TikTok): "Stealing Time!" (Nov. 17, 2024)
• Readers Favorite's Favorite: "Stealing Time" (Nov. 13, 2024)
• Lion's Pride: "Alumni Publications: Stealing Time" (Fall 2024)
• Reading.Late.Into.The.Night (via Instagram): "Stealing Time Review" (Nov. 12, 2024)
• MarBooks88 (via Instagram): "Stealing Time: This fun read is a time travel, jewelry heist book and I really enjoyed it. It reads like a movie. Set over a long weekend in 1980 and a few hours in 2020 the short chapters kept me reading." (Nov. 11, 2024)
• Tales Untangled: "STEALING TIME—A Race Against Time for the Heist of the Century" (Oct 29, 2024): "STEALING TIME really is a high-octane adventure with a race car pace...If you think the rest of the book is fast, the ending puts it into an even higher gear!.. I enjoyed this book, it was a fast read. It’s also refreshing that there isn’t a romance involved—it really is focused on the crime and family dynamics. Happy reading!"
• Red Carpet Crash: "Book Review: ‘Stealing Time: A Novel’ By Tilia Jacobs And Norman Birnbach" (Oct. 29, 2024): "This is a fun time-travel mystery, with interesting characters and a good look at 2020 and 1980 and all the differences. Readers will enjoy this one"
• SFRevu: "The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - November/December 2015– Volume 129, Nos.5&6, Whole No.722": "'It's All Relative at the Space-Time Café' by Norman Birnbach -+- Bohr and his former girlfriend, Jenny, meet in the eponymous bar. Their friends all have very familiar names and say very familiar things. A lot of jokes here and the story is pure fun."
• Amazing Stories: "MAGAZINE REVIEW: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction Nov/Dec 2015": "According to the preface, 'It’s All Relative at the Space-Time Café,' is Norman Birnbach’s first published SF story. It’s kind of an extended pun (no, not a Feghoot), and reminds me of a Big Bang Theory episode on steroids."
• Best SF: "Norman Birnbach. It’s All Relative at the Space Time Cafe. (Fantasy and Science Fiction, Nov/Dec 2015)": "A first SF story from an established writer, who is an SF reader, as the story clearly shows. A light-hearted look at love, amongst an investigation into the disappearance (or not) of Schrodinger. The plot is just a way to get a guest appearance from every scientist who has a science theory relevant to SF who ever drew breath. And there are a lot of them from Copernicus and Ptolemy to Hawking and Hubble, all making pertinent and apposite comments."
• Locus Online: "Lois Tilton reviews Short Fiction, early October 2015"
• Tangent: "Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2015"
• Rocket Stack Rank: "It's All Relative at Hothe Space-Time Café, by Norman Birnbach"
• SF Crowsnest (UK): "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (Nov./Dec. 2015 magazine review)": "Norman Birnbach’s ‘It’s All Relative At The Space-Time Café’ is a humorous piece of word-play which will appeal most strongly to those familiar with the roll-call of twentieth century physicists, as befits a piece written to mark the centenary of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity."
• Caius's Reviews: "The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, November/December 2015: "'It's All Relative at the Space-Time Café' by Norman Birnbach ~ 3 stars ~ Cute and contemplative with lots (and lots) of puns."

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