Suprise Me

Well, another year has rolled over and threatens to play dead. Congrats to all who survived to read this —you’ve lived long enough to cross into the netherworld between the second and third year of our worldwide pandemic. We haven’t lost too many friends. Most of us believe epidemiologists who deny that the wonder vaccine… Read More

On May 10, 1933, university students burned more than 25,000 “un-German” books in Berlin’s Opera Square (pictured below). 40,000 people gathered to hear Nazi chief of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, make a speech in which he said, “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Sound familiar? This past January, the McMinn County Board of Education in Tennessee… Read More

I wish I had been able to be with him to tell him I loved him and hold his hand. I will always regret not being there for that final farewell. Read More

We'd not gotten halfway when the motor started to choke and sputter. A few minutes after that, the storm was upon us. Read More

exploring chauvinism felt like tumbling through surf Read More

Parasite and Roma I love the movies and try to see all the good stuff. Last month I read the glowing reviews of Parasite ,  the new South Korean film directed by Bong Joon-Ho,  the Palme d’Or winner at Cannes.  And then when friend after friend after friend recommended it,  I was really intrigued and put… Read More

It was a secret. We only knew about it because a good friend on the Brandeis Student Senate contacted us. We had already graduated, but he got us tickets and we lined up outside the gym on that cold November night in 1975, waiting for legends of our musical lives: Dylan and Baez (performing together… Read More

This was originally published in Retrospect on October 12, 2019 under the prompt Hacked and Scammed. Although I have been hacked other times, it is still my favorite story of being hacked. The screen froze. A red, pulsing light covered QuickBooks, accompanied by a loud, persistent beep. I froze in horror, as this old laptop… Read More

The Psychology department specialized in animal studies. Herrnstein and his students did their work on pigeons not people. Read More

I have made a total of eight moves in my life, and it is astonishing how many details I have forgotten. Read More