Tom Purcell

Pittsburgh

Executive Producer at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Author, Syndicated Humor Columnist, Raconteur Find my humor books, columns and funny videos featuring my Labrador, Thurber, at https://t.co/6kmDjZ8NNs

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Articles

Let’s bring back the sounds of summer

1 week ago | franklincounty.news | Tom Purcell

Summer sounded better in the ’70s. I woke every morning to the birds chirping outside my window screen, a dewy chill in the air. I’d smell my father’s pipe, which he smoked while he read the paper downstairs. I’d go down to greet him. He’d make scrambled eggs and toast covered with butter, and we’d eat while the birds kept on singing.
Purcell: Let’s return to comfort food

1 week ago | news-journal.com | Tom Purcell

My favorite summer comfort food is the fried chicken and potato salad dinner my mother made throughout my childhood — one I’ve spent three years trying to reinvent. It turns out I’m not alone. According to a 2025 study by the Food Institute and Nestlé USA, more Americans — citing increased food costs, health concerns and a longing for emotional calm — are recreating the meatloaf, stews and other family meals they enjoyed as children.
Guest Column: Let’s return to comfort food

1 week ago | yumasun.com | Tom Purcell

My favorite summer comfort food is the fried chicken and potato salad dinner my mother made throughout my childhood – one I’ve spent three years trying to reinvent. It turns out I’m not alone. According to a 2025 study by the Food Institute and Nestlé USA, more Americans – citing increased food costs, health concerns and a longing for emotional calm – are recreating the meatloaf, stews and other family meals they enjoyed as children.
Purcell Let's return to comfort food

1 week ago | dcourier.com | Tom Purcell

My favorite summer comfort food is the fried chicken and potato salad dinner my mother made throughout my childhood - one I've spent three years trying to reinvent. It turns out I'm not alone.
Tom Purcell: Making the best of the common cold

1 week ago | havasunews.com | Tom Purcell

I forgot what it was like to experience a good old common cold. Prior to covid, you see, the cold-getting experience went like this: I’d wake with a stuffy nose and scratchy throat and my only thought was to curse the gods for visiting a new virus cocktail on me that was going to make me cranky for nine days. kAmx C6>6>36C 2E 7:CDE 56?J:?8 E92E 2 4@=5 G:CFD H2D 762DE:?8 @? >6[ E96?[ 2D E96 924<:?8 8@E 325[ x >@G65 @? E@ E96 2?86C DE286 367@C6 7:?2==J 2446AE:?8 >J 72E6 E92E E96 >:D6C23=6 4@>>@?
Purcell: A salute to Flag Day -- which should matter to all of us

2 weeks ago | telegraphherald.com | Tom Purcell

Flag Day, celebrated every June 14, is one of America’s lesser-known holidays, but my father never forgot it. June 14 marks the day in 1777 when the Continental Congress officially adopted the Stars and Stripes as our national flag. Though President Woodrow Wilson established Flag Day by proclamation in 1916, it wasn’t made permanent until 1949, when President Harry S. Truman signed it into law. For my father, born during the Great Depression, Flag Day was never just a footnote.
PURCELL: Father’s Day: Why I still Sleep With My Window Fans

2 weeks ago | greenevillesun.com | Tom Purcell

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Purcell: Why I still sleep with window fans

2 weeks ago | news-journal.com | Tom Purcell

I fell asleep every summer night to the wobbling sound of a window fan — and I still do. I grew up in a modest two-story home typical of the 1960s and 1970s — red brick on the bottom, white aluminum siding on the top. There were four bedrooms upstairs and a master bedroom downstairs (my parents’ bedroom, which they added onto the back of our house in 1972). Only one house in our neighborhood had air conditioning back then. It was locked up tighter than Fort Knox.
Why I still sleep with my window fans

2 weeks ago | djournal.com | Tom Purcell

I fell asleep every summer night to the wobbling sound of a window fan — and I still do. I grew up in a modest two-story home typical of the 1960s and 1970s — red brick on the bottom, white aluminum siding on the top. There were four bedrooms upstairs and a master bedroom downstairs (my parents’ bedroom, which they added onto the back of our house in 1972). kAm~?=J @?6 9@FD6 :? @FC ?6:893@C9@@5 925 2:C 4@?5:E:@?:?8 324< E96?] xE H2D =@4<65 FA E:89E6C E92? u@CE z?@I]k^AmkAmpD x 6IA=2:? :?
Time to have children rediscover nature’s benefits

2 weeks ago | jamestownpress.com | Tom Purcell

Summer sounded better in the 1970s. I woke every morning to the birds chirping outside my window screen, a dewy chill in the air. I’d smell my father’s pipe, which he smoked while he read the paper downstairs. I’d go down to greet him. He’d make scrambled eggs and toast covered with butter, and we’d eat while the birds sang.