A while ago, I wrote a post in which I referred to a woman for whom I once worked as the Queen of the Malaprop. For those of you who might not be familiar with the term, a malaprop, which is short for malapropism, is the use of a word or phrase in place of […]

Those of you who saw last week’s post are fully aware of the attempt to take advantage of me and my … uh … digestive byproducts. And, like me, you might have thought the story would end there. No such luck. A week ago Saturday, I received registered mail, purporting to be from Exact Sciences, […]

Prologue In the summer of 1974, I was 20 years old. I was admitted to the Hospital of St. Raphael (now part of Yale New Haven Health) for surgical repair of a Bochdalek hernia. (Since most such hernias manifest symptomatically shortly after birth, how mine came to be diagnosed at such a relatively late point […]

According to Buddhist tradition, Siddhartha “Sid” Gautama was a prince born into the Shakya clan around the 5th or 6th century BCE, in Lumbini, which is now modern-day Nepal. His father, Suddhodana, was a chieftain or a king. His mother, Maya, died shortly after his birth. Sid was raised in luxury in Kapilavastu, sheltered from […]

On the Friendship Bench last week, Mac Bogert and I shared stories of near-death experiences, both of which happened to do with water and near drowning. Since we both reported feelings of peace and serenity during our experiences, I wondered if the spiritual and mythological significances (they’re not different) of water may have had something […]

Especially with the NBA and NHL playoffs in full swing, you can turn on the TV or go to YouTube for post-game press conferences and hear any number of players and coaches (especially from teams that lost) saying they have to take their games to the next level. And regardless of the industry or the […]

  Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, I’d like to share my brother, Woody, with you. If you’re not yet familiar with him, here’s an introduction. Perhaps more than anyone else I know, Woody is a guy who understands the importance of dreams. Two examples: Woody will be 65 in November. He’s never driven […]

When I opened the Outlook app on my iPhone the other day, there was an advertisement at the top of the feed that said, “Pay off debt without a loan.” At that moment, Anne said, “Did I just hear your eyes blink?” I put down my phone. I sat in baffled astonishment trying to imagine […]

If you’ve read my book, Random Thoughts: A Writer’s Notebook, you know I was employed as a hospital orderly in Meriden, Connecticut, from mid-1972 to mid-1974. I worked the first shift, which was 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. My duties consisted of lifting and transporting patients, taking bodies to the morgue, occasionally assisting with autopsies […]

It’s a little-known fact that if the number of steps in your house — including the ones leading into the house — isn’t even, the house won’t be level. When I learned that, it freaked me out to the point that I decided to count all the steps in and around our home. I counted […]