Ashley Herzog
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Brittanee Drexel’s white killer went free for 13 years while the police pursued black suspects
I remember when Brittanee Drexel went missing from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, during spring break in 2009. I wasn’t much older than her — she was a senior in high school and I was a senior in college. As someone who never had warm feelings about the week-long college bacchanals in Panama City and Myrtle Beach, the details of the case told me I was right to follow my instincts. They also chilled me to the bone: how could this pretty 17-year-old disappear from a fully booked hotel on the main drag in Myrtle Beach without anyone trying to intervene? Police traced Brittanee’s cell phone along a 50-mile trail, all the way to a boat ramp in a remote area of neighboring Georgetown County. That was where the phone pinged a cell tower for the last time, about a day after she was last seen at her hotel. Despite having this trail of electronic evidence — as well as security footage and some witnesses who recalled seeing Brittanee get into a white car — no one was ever arrested. But the police did publicly identify “persons of interest” — a group of black men living in small-town South Carolina. At one point, one of these men, Timothy Deshaun Taylor, apparently confessed to the crime, saying he had witnessed Drexel getting shot twice at a “stash house” owned by local drug dealers, who dumped her body into an alligator pit. But then something funny happened: despite his confession, Taylor was never charged with anything.
By Ashley Herzog4 years ago in Beat
Who decided we all hate Nickelback?
Few names inspire canned sneers and derisive laughter more than “Nickelback.” Nobody knows exactly why, but we all know one thing for certain: we all hate Nickelback. Admitting to liking even one song is a hallmark of horrible taste. There’s no reasoning behind it; everyone just knows they’re supposed to respond to any mention of the long-running band by typing “lol Nickelback sux.” We might as well require a George Orwell-style “Two Minutes Hate” ritual. But me, I’m not playing along.
By Ashley Herzog4 years ago in Beat
John Mayer and other overrated white guys
I was 16 years old in the spring of 2002. It was a rough time to be alive, with 9/11 blindsiding us during my sophomore year of high school. But more importantly for the topic of this post, it was a rough time to be a girl. After the mid-90s rise of Lilith Fair, feminist 'zines, and Sassy magazine, our cultural gatekeepers at places like Rolling Stone decided they'd had enough of this feminist crap. What we needed right now was Britney Spears on the cover of aforementioned magazine in her underwear clutching a stuffed animal, in a nod to "pedophilia chic" - one of the grossest cultural trends of the early 2000s. In any event, truly talented singer-songwriters like Fiona Apple were out. Smug white guys with guitars and pretentious NPR voices were ascendant.
By Ashley Herzog4 years ago in Beat
Parental Advisory: what the 1990s moral crusaders misunderstood about hip-hop
I’m a product of the 90s. Born in 1985, my childhood was American Girl Dolls, Power Rangers, and The Babysitters Club. My political views were shaped by the Contract With America, Desert Storm, and the Monica Lewinsky scandal. As the kids say, it was quite a time to be alive.
By Ashley Herzog4 years ago in Journal
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 Herzog4 years 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 Herzog4 years 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 Herzog4 years 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 Herzog4 years 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 Herzog4 years 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 years 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 Herzog4 years ago in The Swamp
