Suprise Me

I have had my share of the usual rites of passage: no bar mitzvah, but two weddings, some funerals (not mine), and a ton of graduations.  Of these, and passing the inherent sadness of funerals, I can quickly identify which was the worst experience for me: my law school “graduation” from Columbia Law School (“CLS”)… Read More

Why the small beige box was in my mother's dresser I'll never know. The items pictured belonged to my father's father ... Read More

We poets are at all levels, from awesomely accomplished to beginner. I am somewhere in the middle. Read More

Memorial Day weekend in Sacramento is most notable for the Dixieland Jazz Jubilee, which has occurred every year since 1974. It is an amazing four days of music and fun, with bands from all over the country and the world who make the pilgrimage to northern California to play traditional jazz. I didn’t discover it until… Read More

I started cooking because I was hungry. In fact, I'm still hungry—all the time. Read More

Try as I might, in my seven decades – most of which were lived in New York City of all places – I can’t remember being the victim of any shady deals or crooked schemes. I never shot craps in Vegas nor have I even been to Foxwoods. I was never conned in a dark… Read More

“What’s this?” asked Wendy. “Chocolate cream pie,” I answered helpfully. “It’s like soup,” said Jean. Read More

I have a notorious black thumb. I killed a philodendron in my college dorm room and those things are indestructible. I killed all my house plants, so replaced them with good-looking silk ones. No fuss, no muss. But that is indoors. The great outdoors is less and more capricious. Back home in Newton, MA, my… Read More

I have written my own Journal of the Plague Year in five chapters. I'm thrilled that this fifth chapter is the last! Read More

This is the house I grew up in, a two-story red brick house with a full attic and basement, on a corner lot in Belleville, New Jersey. My father’s medical office is on the side, you can see the entrance to it on the far right in the picture. My parents moved into this house… Read More