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 […]
Over the weekend, Anne and I went to Ballek’s Garden Center to buy a plant for the inside of the house and a planter for the outside. Anne goes there much more frequently than I do. And every time I go, I wonder why I don’t go more often. As you drive up the winding […]
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 […]
Author’s Note: Since I published my graphic novel, The Waterloo Diaries: The Bedsore Conspiracy, the book has received reviews from several people, including Dennis Pitocco, Victor Acquista, Sigmund Freud, William Faukner, Brené Brown, Eckhardt Tolle, a sanitation worker named Moe Zambeek, Professor Herman J. Fleabeard in Piously Pedantic Prattle, the noted book critic, Wilbur Freemish, […]
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, […]
