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 […]

The story you’re about to read is true. The names haven’t been changed to protect the innocent because everyone in the story is innocent, some more than others. The telling of this story is inspired by my friend, Charlotte Wittenkamp, by whom I was moved to tell the first part of it in a LinkedIn […]

There’s been much speculation about Ernest Hemingway’s novel, A Farewell to Arms, which was published by Scribner in 1929. On the surface, it appears to be the story of the American, Frederic Henry, who’s serving as a lieutenant in the ambulance corps of the Italian army in WWI. But psychosexual scholars find a deeper meaning, […]

The University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging reports that 10% of people age 50 and older have no close friends. 48% have 1 to 3 close friends and 42% have 4 or more. Remember in high school when we may have had 10 close friends? What happened? Friendships are not self-sustaining; they require […]

Unless you came here from another planet, you’ve likely heard Michael Jackson’s song, “Billie Jean”, at some point in your life. Come to think of it, at least one person who came here from another planet did hear the song. Superman had it played at his wedding to Lois Lane. And he did the moonwalk […]

If you read Part One of this series, you recall my having learned Melitta Coffee filters were invented by a German woman, Melitta Bentz. Since then, Anne has been to the store to buy more coffee Melitta coffee filters. And now I’ve learned they come in two colors — white and brown. Since I was […]

In the first part of what I didn’t know at the time would become a series, I cited a conversation on the Friendship Bench, led by everyone’s friend, Phil “Don’t Call Me Hank” Williams, in which he asked a provocative question: What are your expectations for going into a relationship and how will you approach […]

The conversation on last week’s Friendship Bench was led by everyone’s friend, Phil Williams. As always, Phil brought his A Game and his soothing demeanor. He also brought a provocative question for us to contemplate as he sent us into breakout rooms: What are your expectations for going into a relationship and how will you […]

Just like our story, the original Christmas tales were stories of searching, not so much for the lost, as for the familiar. Mary and Joseph sought in Bethlehem — the home of their familial ancestry — a place to start their own family; the three kings from the East journeyed beneath the sentinel star to […]