Suprise Me

After two warm days, January 18, 2001 was cold and sunny, prompting everything that had previously melted to freeze again. I had a morning meeting at the Rose Art Museum in Waltham, followed by lunch with an old friend who had moved to San Diego long ago, so I dressed nicely, even wearing my mink… Read More

I broke with personal tradition and resolved to change myself Read More

    The good folks at Retrospect are asking about tattoos and piercings – those permanent (well, mostly permanent) ways we adorn our bodies. Now, as a former dedicated follower of the “body-as-a-temple” school of thought (courtesy of Catholicism, bless their metaphorical heart), I found myself firmly in the pew, not the piercing table. But… Read More

  I’ve always had lousy feet. As a child I had to wear “orthopedic shoes” with arch support in them (saddle shoes in the summer, some black velveteen things in the winter, but always heavy, laced up shoes). Never sneakers, never sandals. Not enough support. I rebelled in 6th grade, while my mother was in… Read More

I. As hippies, we repaired our jeans with patches, braid, embroidery floss. A statement: flower power. Decades later came heavy metal, grunge. Tattered and torn, a statement: fuck you. Now, designer distressed, professionally ripped in all the right places, a statement: I’m with it, at any cost. II. Broken, faded, distressed, frayed. I’m not talking… Read More

My oldest sister went off to Radcliffe College in September 1962, just as I started seventh grade. I was fascinated with Radcliffe – the apple trees with circular benches around them in Radcliffe Yard, the nine old homey-looking brick dorms around the lush green Quad – and with the bustling Harvard Square area. It seemed… Read More

…the waves reaching up the beach and pulling my sleeping bag with me in it out to sea. Read More

Background: In 2006, while on a sailboat charter vacation in the BVI, my wife’s best friend (since childhood), Bonnie, drowned during a snorkeling expedition. My wife and the friend’s boyfriend performed CPR on her friend for 45 minutes before the local medical authority arrived and declared she was dead. This was obviously an extremely traumatic… Read More

Duck and cover seemed the height of folly, and I'd never felt immortal. Read More

    “Question authority” is a phrase that has been around for centuries. It’s a call to think critically about the people in power and to not blindly follow their orders. But what if authority is actually funny? Think about it. Authority figures are often portrayed as being stuffy, uptight, and humorless. They’re the ones… Read More