Suprise Me

The Plug-In Drug Most of my friends have been TV bingeing for years,  and during the pandemic lockdown it certainly was the activity of choice. But I’ve never been much of a TV watcher,  and I couldn’t agree more with Marie Winn when in the 1970s she wrote about the problems inherent in watching  too much… Read More

I was going to call this story Ticket To Ride, but I used that for my Woodstock story. My thanks to Duke Ellington for this title. Read More

I do not have a good sense of direction. I'm usually good with maps, unless I have them upside down. And grateful now to have GPS. Read More

I love word games and crossword puzzles. But here's the thing - to me they are social activities, done with other people. Read More

Was the song meant to instill a false sense of pride in his students, or a fever dream of a school where he’d really like to teach? Read More

The first poem I remember from my childhood is Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere. I memorized it when I was young to impress my father, who was a huge history buff. Not a great poem, but I still remember some of it: Listen, my children, and you shall hear Of the… Read More

Back in my day, bicycles had two wheels, no chain, no pedals, no brakes and, dammit, I was happy to have one…. Oh wait, that’s not true … But media coverage of pro cycling was just as primitive as that first push-bicycle, known as a “dandy horse,” back in the 19th century. Back before the… Read More

She was the fun aunt – the one who let me do everything my mother forbid. Read More

We are five months into the pandemic. Massachusetts was one of the hardest-hit states and took a long time to reopen. That’s fine with us. Dan ends conversations saying,”Stay healthy, stay safe, stay sane”.  In a normal summer, we would have moved to Martha’s Vineyard for the season the week before Memorial Day, but nothing… Read More

Take Care of Your Sister I was my parents’ first child and had only one sibling,  my sister Laurie. My folks had always wanted a second child but after I was born my mother had trouble conceiving again.   Of course at the time I was too young to be told or to understand such things,… Read More