Another Big Ass Fan My nephew and his family moved back to Southern California recently. As a young family with a toddler, they needed a transition living arrangement while they managed the move from Minnesota and wrangled the sale and purchase of a house. My sister, who lives nearby said it was going to be very difficult for her to put them up for that transition period since their home would have to be upended…
Mintless Mango Mojitos We are sitting by the edge of the pool at Elbow Beach Club on Sunday afternoon. It’s been a pleasant three days in paradise, and we will have dinner in Hamilton tonight, return our Twizy’s and depart for the airport in the morning. The pool barman has offered us any drink we want, so Kim ordered a mango mojito. There was an issue. It seems he was tragically out of fresh mint…
My Amigo Mike In 1971 I transitioned from high school to college by way of a summer in Cleveland. That was the summer the Cuyahoga River caught fire and the summer I learned how to fend for myself. I arrived in Cleveland from Rome, Italy, where I had lived for three years, skipping over the all-important Woodstock to Kent State years of American life. I promptly rented a room in a fraternity house on the…
Close Friends About fifteen years ago I was between marriages and more conscious than at most times about all my physical flaws. I was walking down lower Fifth Avenue near 15th Street, which was near where I lived on Union Square. I noticed a sign next to a door which proclaimed it the offices of Dr. Joyce Martin, M.D. – Dermatology. I had known a Joyce Martin in college. She was a peripheral part of…
Stranded In the movie The Endless Summer, the filmmaker documents a group of surf bums chasing the eternal wave all around the planet. I think the title and the poster were more famous than the movie itself. As I recall, the narrator sounded a lot like Warren Miller, the guy who made thousands of ski videos with similar narration. He, like Miller was the exact opposite of the people he was portraying. They were wild,…
On the Beach We have all been taught that the sun is not good for us. It seems that everyone my age has had some part of their face or neck trimmed of potentially carcinogenic material. We all know we should slip/slap/slop on the spf 30 gunk to keep ourselves safe. And yet, I still see the ads for the lovely beach resorts and want to go sit and frolic in the sun no less…
Planes, Trains, Ships and Automobiles John Candy was one of my favorites. I can rarely pass up a John Candy movie, but my all time favorite is that Thanksgiving classic, Planes, Trains and Automobiles. So when my lovely wife got all wierded out by the ASPCA commercial (she absolutely cannot watch them), I had to randomly flip the channel and it landed on PT&A, which was just starting. I’m writing this for two reasons. The…
Wired I just got a message from LinkedIn that told me that “Rich people are looking at your profile.” I was very pleased to hear that. That must be a portend of good things to come, unless you think they just forgot the comma and meant to say, “Rich, people are looking at your profile.” I don’t want to pay extra for the premium service, not because I don’t like to know who is so…
The Cold War I know that what historians call The Cold War lasted from 1946 to 1989 according to all the encyclopedias. My first thirty-five years were spent under that regime and it is a part of my fabric as a person as much as it is for all Baby Boomers. I never had to hide under my desk in a drill, but I do recall crouching with my hands over my head in the…
The Archipelago of New York Neither came from New York and yet both were of New York. It is said you choose your friends but not your family. I disagree. It’s like nature versus nurture. While your family forms your nature. I believe that with the passage of time, your nurture comes from your friends and they dominate who you are. You may be from where you spent your childhood, but you are where you…