Deep breath. Here goes. Big announcement. For me, anyway. I am going to publish a book. It is a collection of stories called Punk Party and Other Accounts of Mischief, and lucky you, dear...
Category - Blog
… and sometimes I lie in bed all night with my eyes closed.
I’m a newspaper man from way back. Think of the great journalism films—The Front Page, His Girl Friday, All the President’s Men, and the grandaddy of them all, Citizen Kane—and, of...
It’s Election Day 2020, and everybody is looking at you. That’s right I’m talking to you. We’ve been friends a long time.
Don’t let me down.
I came across this the other day, a joyous celebration plucked from the garbage heap that is the internet. It’s a short, three-minute listen. It begins simply and innocently — a single voice. It...
The sun has yet to rise, but its coming warmth already pierces the October morning. I feel it. Today will be one of those great fall days that lifts your soul and spirit … the kind of day that...
Although it may have appeared I haven’t written much since June, that’s not quite true. Yes, my morning writing routine was sidetracked for the past few months—but not completely. As...
Staycation. Boy, do I hate that word. Mostly because it means I didn’t go on a vacation, which, let’s face it, is what I long for as soon as I’ve finished my previous vacation...
It was in the locker room, before one of our late Saturday night hockey games, that my brother-in-law, Jack, threw out the offer: He was going to rent a house while he was going to grad school at...
(AKA: Hunkered Down, Day 55) It could be a day to let sadness get to me, especially living in isolation as we all are, but that’s not going to happen. I’d like to say something meaningful...
(AKA: Hunkered Down, Day 39) The other day I grabbed the HD TV monitor Max used back when he was in college and attached it to my work-at-home computer. Having a second monitor would give me more...
Easter, 2020. Planet Earth is trembling in front of me. I had plans, and this ugly mess has gotten in the way. My mind is fuzzy. I have all this time; there is nowhere to go. I want to read; my...
AKA: Hunkered Down, Day 12 As we spend this strange time together, I have a suggestion for you. You’re going to hear it, and two choices will come to mind: Sure, I’ll give that a try. Are you...
(AKA: Hunkered Down, Day 6) What a lineup on ESPN 2 yesterday. Axe throwing. Cup stacking. Marble racing. Putt-putt. Nothing, however, was more jaw-droppingly captivating than the 51st Annual Stone...
March, 2020. The coronavirus hits hard and I start working from home. What I naively thought would be a few weeks stretched out for much longer. Here then, is the blog-within-a-blog, Hunkered Down...
It’s 1985. I’ve spent of the beginning of the decade goofing off: Living in an old house with my best friends; working jobs that offer just enough money to pay the rent, purchase food...
Last week my son, Max, asked if we could switch cars for a day—he was going on a long drive—so, no problem. (It makes me think of my dad, who would give up his car at a moment’s notice to one of us...
Back when mastodons roamed the land, when I was a kid, mine was a world of Making Plans and Biding My Time. This was especially true if I got the fever over a toy or game that went way beyond any...
I’ve revisited a series of fiftieth and sixtieth anniversaries in this space lately—a reaction to my age, and the tectonic shifts that takes place in a boy’s life when he realizes that...
Sixty-two years ago today, at a church fair, two teenagers met each other for the first time. One of the boys, who was 16, was performing with his band on a makeshift stage on the back of a truck...