The violence exacerbated by Mayor Daley’s draconian crackdown on protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention helped to elect Nixon, a far worse alternative than Humphrey. Read More

I was in the high school class of 1968, indelibly stamped. When that year was still the future, it represented that border between childhood dependency and my real life, whatever that might mean.  I had known nothing but childhood, but I felt ready for things to turn.  Read More

        Retrospect: 1968 A year of upheaval, of protest, of a man landing on the moon. But let’s talk about the real drama: hair. The year was a mane-iacal frenzy. Hair grew longer, wilder, and more defiant with each passing month. It was as if the world was collectively saying, “Screw it,… Read More

Hey kids, let's put on a convention! Read More

The one year of my life that had the greatest impact on me was definitely 1968. Read More

Once you are on the Pali highway you are stuck behind whatever you are stuck behind. Read More

Early Session Commute I like to stay up late at night and sleep late in the morning.  (See Night Owl) But of course I couldn’t indulge those preferences during all my years working at a school,  especially the semesters I was on early session and had to punch a time clock at the ungodly hour… Read More

Crossing the bottleneck of a bridge required maneuvering through a tangle of feeder lanes, timing the rush hour, and most of all having good traffic karma. Read More

      Rush hour is a daily ordeal, a gauntlet thrown down by urban existence. It is a time when the open road, a symbol of freedom, transforms into a congested, serpentine nightmare. The once-fluid asphalt becomes a parking lot in motion, a claustrophobic ballet of honking horns and overly impatient drivers. Beyond the… Read More

Rolling Stoned at the Garden I’ve told you about my dalliance in a New York coffee shop with Paul McCartney (See My Favorite Beatle),  so now let me tell you about my night at the Garden with the Rolling Stones. Our friends Mary and Frank own a deli and bakery on Mott Street that supplies… Read More