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…
Devils in the Details I was recently in Tasmania for the first time in my life. This island at the southern tip of Australia is an evolutionary anachronism, the land that time forgot. The capital city, Hobart, does not look so different from anywhere else in 2019, but the animal population of the island is where the history gets told. The wombats, penguins, platypuses, echidna (looking like a mini porcupine) and, of course, the eponymous…
Riding the Ferry He had found his way down the length of Manhattan by coming down the East Side, usually staying near, under, over or on (only momentarily) the FDR Drive. It was actually a far easier route than it sounds like and far, far easier than the renovated and gentrified West Side Highway with its constant stream of runners, bicyclists and dog walkers, with their coddled pups with cute little doggie sweaters and fancy…