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Saying a Gradual Goodbye to Our Wolfgang
Wolfgang “Wolfie” McPhee Our poor kitty is on his last legs, I believe. Only 8, he has chronic renal failure for reasons unknown. They could be known, I’m told, if we just get an ultrasound. Worse-case scenario, I suppose, would be that the ultrasound shows either a carcinoma or amyloidosis, a condition of protein buildup […]
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The Truth in Old Photos, Thanks to Siobhan Finneran of Downton Abbey
There’s a photo going around Facebook that shows Downton Abbey actor Siobhan Finneran as her character, Sarah O’Brien, on one side and Siobhan all “dolled up” on the other. I suspect that most people look at it and think, Gee, she’s much prettier when she has makeup on and her own hair. Frederick Douglass But I saw […]
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The ‘Large Uterus’ Or What Not to Say on a Crowded Train
You have a large what? Getting off a rush-hour train the other day I overheard a woman behind me say into her cell phone, quite clearly and rather loudly, “My doctor said I have a large uterus. Never heard that before.” Slap my butt and call me Bobby, I never have either. And I hope […]
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When the ‘Party Line’ Crumbles
“If you’re poor, stop being poor.” Aasif Mandvi closing in a crumble Just so were the words of Todd Wilemon, Managing Director of NYSE Euronext, speaking with The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi March 6, 2014. Aasif, in his brilliantly nonconfrontational way, had just returned from a visit to the “third world” of Knoxville, Kentucky, and […]
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What Do You Believe In?
The keynote speaker at a recent conference I attended was Adam L. Saenz, a compelling speaker and author of The Power of a Teacher: Restoring Hope and Well-Being to Change Lives. At one point, the climax of the speech, he told a story about a talk he once had with his newly-adopted daughter and how her job […]
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What Would Your Last Meal Be?
Photographer Henry Hargreaves recently put together a series of photos of last meals by famous and infamous murderers, and it got me thinking. If I knew what day I was going to die, what would I want for my last meal? Because I’m not in prison, and because I’m assuming that I won’t be in […]
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Old Farts Farting
Would you please tell me what the dinky heck is with all the farting after 60? I’ve always farted, and so have you. We all fart. But since I turned 60, man, the farts just come out no matter what. I used to be able to pretty much control them, to hold them back and […]
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My Proustian Questionnaire
If ever I was on The Actor’s Studio, here’s how I might answer Mr. Lipton’s questions. Based, as he says, on Bernard Pivot‘s version of Marcel Proust’s questionnaire. What is your favorite word? Awesome What is your least favorite word? The N word. I hate even to say “the N word.” What turns you on? […]
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Jefferson’s Memorial Set Apart for Good Reason
The Jefferson Memorial stands in quiet grandeur on the south side of the Tidal Basin, well away from Lincoln’s and Washington’s memorials. That distance, 0.896 miles from Jefferson to Lincoln and 0.563 miles from Jefferson to Washington, seems more than appropriate given Jefferson’s complex and exceedingly frustrating personality. The more I read about this particular […]
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Lucky Man
I’m a lucky man. A lucky, lucky man. I discovered history before it was too late. When I was younger — much, much younger — I hated history. Hated it. Thought that history was just a bunch of old guys who didn’t know any better and that we people of the now are just so much more […]
