Brothers Positano

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Welcome to Brothers Positano, where literary dreams take flight. Dive into our world of captivating narratives and expert writing. We know many types of writing-memoirs, scripts, science fiction, historical fiction. We have used our life experiences growing up in Brooklyn, NYC to enrich our writing.

We're the writers John and Rock Positano, and we write based on universal themes...love, struggle and triumph.

We're two brothers, and we have earned the success we have had. We came from the working class, and saw success as well as failure. "Our father worked as a window dresser (a field now buried by malls) at stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, B. Altman and Company, and Macy's, famous for his design of the Christmas windows, among many others. Dad was also an accomplished musician who played piano with the "Big Bands" in the '40s. He was a high-school dropout, yet he was the only father in our neighborhood who read the NY Times. He taught us the value of understanding a more sophisticated vocabulary than the one we were exposed to in the neighborhood. Our mother, a Depression-era baby, was a stay-at-home mom, but she worked at a fledgling computer data-entry company. We were both prehistoric latchkey kids when most  stayed home and made chocolate pudding. ...We were out in the schoolyard, playing hoops and avoiding all the bad influences

imaginable during the turbulent late '60s and '70s."

Famed chef and author Lidia Matticio  Bastianich is a fan of our book, Dinner with Dimaggio. She has published cookbooks and has appeared on television regularly. Lidia also owns her own restaurants. She is an expert on Italian cuisine, and has a website called 'Lidia's Italy", which offers authentic Italian recipes.

There have been many appearances of Lidia on public television, since 1998. In 2014, she started her fifth TV series, called Lidia's Kitchen. Her restaurant chain of Eataly, which she is a partner in, has locations all across the United States.

 

Near the end of the life of Joe Dimaggio, Dr Rock learned how to play baseball like Joe did, thanks to some time in a Coney Island batting cage. Rock said: "Jesus Christ, I feel like an altar boy reciting the Latin Mass in front of the Pope."

Joe Dimaggio was very protective of his image and his name. He made sure his appearance was always up to snuff. This had to do with how aware of how he was seen as a role model.

 

All the people who submitted their memoir stories for our book of Street Smart attained success through using their street smarts. Dr Anthony Fauci used it to find common ground with AIDS patients when he was the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  Bo Dietl, a famous detective affiliated with the NYPD, uses it to survey criminals.

Sports journalist Bob Costas uses it to predict sports.

Governor and media personality Mike Huckabee used street smart with Hurricane Katrina when he was governor and took in evacuees from other states. Cold War era Russian American journalist, Vladmir Pozner, used his street smarts to enlighten both the Russian and American audiences about the truth of what was happening. The respected journalist, Ken Auletta, uses his street smarts to accurately cover society. The reporter Richard Johnson covers the elite using his street smarts. Famed journalist Charlie Rose uses his street smarts to get interviews to reveal about those he interviews. Popular TV Judge, Judy Sheindlin, uses her street smarts to be a better judge. Rolling Stone contributing editor Anthony Decurtis uses his street smarts to help him be a good editor. Long Island Machiavelli, Anthony Scaramucci, used his street smarts to succeed in capital management. Investment banker Raymond McGuire succeeded at firms like Citigroup because of his street smarts. The documentary filmmaker Ken Burns uses his street smarts to make more enlightening films.

 Media queen Bonnie Fuller uses street smarts to push ahead 

with being an editor in chief and a book writer. Ken Sunshine, a public relations maven, has used his street smarts to help people improve their public images. Steve Aiello, a national educator, uses his street smarts to give kids more of an edge with regards to their education. Real life 'mad man' Jerry Della Femina used his street smarts to get ahead in the ad exec world at a time when Italians were looked down in advertising. Judith Rodin has led innovations happening, especially in psychology, and this she has done with street smarts. Actor Michael Imperioli uses his street smarts to succeed in the rough and tumble world of acting.

So has Tony LoBianco, albeit during different time periods...starting with the 1990s for Imperioli and the 1970s for LoBianco. Political thought leader Arianna Huffington used street

smarts to get her second book published. The 'money honey', Maria Bartiromo, uses her street smarts to get those who she interviews to be honest, like she did with Sarah Palin.

Tony James, the billionaire and former president, COO, and exec chairman of Blackstone, used his street smarts to get ahead to where he is now. Congressman Peter King became a success in politics because of street smarts, as did Governors David Paterson and Phil Murphy. Comedian and radio personality, Joe Piscopo, used his street smarts to succeed in comedy and entertainment.

Fern Mallis, the noted trendsetter in fashion circles, used her street smarts to make her mark. Bob and Paul Cowsill , singers with the Cowsill Family, made an impact in the music world because of their street smarts. Gary Naftalis used his street smarts, for over forty years, to become a successful lawyer.

Jeff Zucker got to be a prestigious media mogul thanks to his street smarts. Al Roker, the beloved weather and feature anchor of The Today Show, used his street smarts to be where he is today. Michael Stoler became a respected real estate titan because of street smarts. Fiiyah, a dancehall and reggae artist, as well as a music producer and owner of his own label, used street smarts to get ahead. So did Danny Clinch, who got to be a lauded photographer. And Jack Douglas became a noteworthy and legendary music producer because of his street smarts.

 

Dinner with Dimaggio shows us how popular athletes, such as Joe Di, gave people someone to emulate. Sports heroes like Mohammed Ali and Joe Louis earned Joe's respect because they stood for something, just like he did. Hemingway's portrayal of Joe, along with Paul Simon's song, Mrs. Robinson, permanently etched his mark on the fabric of American, and also world, culture.

 

 

 

 

 

Olde Brooklyn Style, written about in Street Smart:
"Thankfully, we were not 'fortunate' enough to have grown up in a privileged and comfortable neighborhood or household...We had no connections to prestigious [colleges] or role  to emulate....We received our education in the best classroom of them all: the concrete stoop...This is the place where we learned about loyalty, love, shrewdness, forgiveness, tolerance, compassion, and so many of the vital subjects that comprised our Street Smart education. Every neighborhood had their stoop...where ideas were exchanged and plans were made. We all taught each other these important and life-saving skills, sharing our dreams with one another and with our families while sitting on the stoop, fixated on the summer Van Gogh sky, wondering one day where we'd all end up....That was the unique thing about the streets; none of us were experts in all the important survival areas, but at least we exposed one another to our talents and shared the many tidbits of surviving the asphalt jungle."

 

John Positano, Esq., has written a great deal about the military, law, and surfing, for the NY Daily News,  the Long Island Pulse, and  the Huffington Post. His law practice deals with federal matters. John won many awards for journalism, including the George Polk Award and others. He also headed public relations for fourteen years at a well-respected college prep high school in Brooklyn, NY.

 

Dr. Rock Positano is one of the directors of the Non-Surgical Foot and Ankle Service and the Joe DiMaggio Heel Pain Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in NYC. Known the world over as a medical pioneer in dealing with non-surgical treatment  of foot and ankle problems, Rock graduated from the Yale School of Medicine and is on the staff of many prestigious hospitals.

So far, we've published two books, Dinner with Dimaggio and Street Smart. Soon to be published is the historical fiction, Jews of Positano.

 

The famed and beloved Yankees icon Joe Dimaggio was a friend of Rock's, someone who relied on his street smarts just as much as we did to have success.

And the many people whose memoirs giving wisdom about how to be street smart , written about in the book Street Smart,   have been friends of theirs.

These memoir writers who contributed to our book of Street Smart came from various fields, such as business, journalism, and the arts.

 

 

Our first book, Dinner with Dimaggio, appeals to the baseball fan, the lover of classic romances like Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio had, those who appreciate stand up guys and stories of icons like Joe Di. So many people can relate to that silent icon.

Joe Dimaggio, who was a NY Yankee ballplayer that was a first generation American, was popular beyond the years of his playing for the team. Joe was known and loved by people of all ages.

 

Within Dinner with Dimaggio can be found a treasure trove of previously unknown peeks into the lives of celebrities, such as the famous Rat Pack, who once were friendly with Joe.

Specifically, Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr, who were friendly with JFK.

 

Within Dinner with Dimaggio you will also find how Joe Dimaggio was an obsessed fan of Ernest Hemingway's depiction of him in his novel, Old Man and the Sea. "The Old Man thinks, 'I must have confidence and must be worthy of the great Dimaggio, who does all things perfectly even with the pain   of the bone spur in his heel.' Joe was a fan of this book because it showed he was a hero like the character Santiago was a hero.  it was all about la bella figura, going beyond manners and grooming. Joe "felt he had a responsibility to be a role model and  to embody the traditional values of la bella figura."

 

 

It turned out that bone spur was what led Joe to getting to know and be healed by Dr Rock, decades after retiring from playing baseball with the Yankees.

 

Joe Dimaggio and John and Rock had a lot in common...big extended families and family members having each other's backs, and also a "shared working-class Italian heritage and street values".

 

Joe Dimaggio had a certain sex appeal; he dated the likes of Marilyn Monroe and news personality Elizabeth Vargas.

 

Our second book, Street Smart, gives a glimpse into the lives of successful people of a variety of fields. Most importantly, these successful people explain how you too can be successful.

Street smarts do not just involve being safe on the streets. Being street smart means succeeding in the midst of other challenges.

"Street Smart is itself derived, we believe, from ESP....extrasensory perception...a staple of American folklore...a perception of facts and thoughts not actually derived from the usual senses of sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch."

Street Smart is a book featuring parapsychology and ESP; John Positano at Long Island University's Brooklyn, NY campus "participated in an early 1970s version of Star Gate, as reported in the NY Times from November 25, 1973. The concept explored  and proved statistically is called remote viewing: reading a person's mind from another, sealed, isolated room in the building...With a major grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, the Maimonides Medical Center of Parapsychology and Paraphysics conducted ....experiments. Maimonides is a major hospital in Brooklyn. The NIMH is another player, not given to frivolous causes. It was, and is, notoriously tightfisted in giving away money. Its spokesman told the Times:

"The evidence of ESP, not only from our work but from a dozen other experiments, establishes beyond any reasonable doubt that it occurs. It is important that research on ESP now shifts from attempts to demonstrate that something unusual is happening-which has been the argument over the last 90 years-to what kind of situations and individuals are necessary for it to be obtained."

"The NY Times, in an issue dated January 10, 1984, traced military applications of ESP from an order from President Jimmy Carter in 1977 to the Central Intelligence Agency to close a perceived 'ESP gap' between the  United States and the then-Soviet Union. The CIA supposedly responded with several projects to close the 'gap'...Project Star Gate with a dozen or so ESP-talented individuals in intelligence gathering."

In popular culture, ESP was fictionalized in the 2009 film The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring Jeff Bridges and George Clooney. The movie accurately, if in a tongue-in-cheek way, depicts a remote reading program undertaken by the United States military in the aftermath of 9/11. The military used Street Smarts to track down terror cells. This involved actual combat in Street Smart tactics during the invasion and pacification of Iraq....The unofficial word is that the programs still exist, though not advertised in military literature. Similarly, both the Russian government and the Chinese government have unpublicized Street Smart programs."

 

A person we have known since childhood, Maria Bartiromo, before she was the accomplished journalist she is now, was someone Rock would babysit. She contributed a memoir to Street Smart. " I seized on Street Smart constantly while working on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange, where I traded for twenty years...I had to read 'poker faces'. I had to assess the situation with my instincts and sharp elbows. I had to push back on a man's world of 'suits' who thought they were smarter than me. They weren't. I had Street Smart."

 

As Bonnie Fuller, the celebrity powerhouse behind Hollywoodlife.com, said in her Street Smart memoir:
"You will have to persist for years, persist against lots of critics and naysayers, all without losing hope or faith in yourself. To me, these are qualities that are more important than the ability to 'spot, seize and exploit luck or lucky breaks."

 

And famed and influential medical expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, had this to say in his Street Smart memoir: "I learned early on that being Street Smart meant more than being able to take care of yourself...It meant knowing how to get along with a wide range of personalities."

 

Interestingly, the Democrat governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, is quoted in Street Smart as saying:
"One of my...political heroes, [the Republican president] Theodore Roosevelt [said]:
'Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.'

 

 

 

 

 

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