Category: Memoir

Do you remember those scenes in the epic 1992 film, My Cousin Vinnie, written/produced by my friend Dale Launer, when freight trains rumble past his hotel night after night making him sit bolt upright? Well, I’ve found a spot where they could’ve filmed those scenes. There are three coast-to-coast Interstate highways in the United States: I-10: Running from Santa Monica, California to Jacksonville, Florida (the southernmost transcontinental route) I-80: Running from San Francisco, California to…

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This is the year of Bob Dylan. The recent movie about his life and rise to fame, called A Complete Unknown, starring Timothee Chalamet, certainly has returned the iconic song writer to the front of our collective consciousness. Ive noticed that there are simply more stories, cartoons, articles all about Bob Dylan that are clearly a function of the new movie. His biggest songs were: Based on commercial success and cultural impact, here are some…

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Last night I was at a dinner of a dozen of us from the neighborhood. I got a call from my sister, Barbara, who lives in Las Vegas. I ignored it out of phone politeness to those around the table. When the phone rang a second time I got up to answer it because you never know when an emergency might arise. She was calling to make sure we were OK based on what she…

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I have to admit that as strange as it may sound coming from someone who has spent his entire adult life over 300 pounds, I am eating less and less every day. The prevalence of reduced food intake (also called anorexia of aging) among seniors is a very real phenomenon. According to studies, approximately 15-20% of older adults living independently experience significant decreased food intake. The percentage rises to 30-40% among those living in assisted…

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Back in the summer of 1971, when I was 17 and not really legal yet, I anxiously left my home in Rome, Italy (actually skipping my high school graduation) just to get myself to, of all places, Cleveland, Ohio. It was my first real summer job since leaving the States in 1968 and it was at Case Western Reserve University, so it felt like the start of my college career even though I was just…

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I am sitting here at our boarding gate at the San Francisco International Airport, awaiting our Alaska Airlines flight back to San Diego. Our car is sitting in the garage at Terminal 2 at SAN and our little Buddy is soon to be sleeping once again on our bed rather than spending the night at his dog boarding house with a gang of his small, medium and large dog buddies (we will pick him up…

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