This article claims that giving up novel-reading can be a sign of senility: Fiction, on the other hand, requires you to exercise your memory, as you proceed from beginning to end and retain a variety of details, characters and plots. … Continue reading →
I got home very late last night. The flight was good and even got in early, weather here was unseasonably mild, and I’m not too jet-lagged. Things still seem rather surreal. Here’s my question, though. For the last five years … Continue reading →
Today is Valentine’s Day and I’m feeling somewhat raw, for obvious reasons. And yet I’ve never been really big on Valentine’s Day celebrations. After all, for the last thirty years or so I haven’t been able to eat chocolate without … Continue reading →
The other day I thought I’d lost my favorite earrings. That is, one of the pair of my favorite earrings, which are these. I’ve had those earrings for at least twenty years, maybe thirty or forty years. Hard to say … Continue reading →
[NOTE: Here’s a repeat of one of my earliest posts, written in my very first year of blogging: May, 2005. Back then I didn’t have all that many readers, so I thought I’d bring it out for another go-round.] I … Continue reading →
Regular readers here know I don’t usually go in for personal revelations. It’s not that my life is absent from my own blog, but I ordinarily cite something only as a jumping-off place for some of my thoughts and reflections. … Continue reading →
You may have noticed that the timing of my posts has shifted to later in the day. That’s mostly because I’m on the west coast, and should be here for about the next two weeks. It’s also, of course, because … Continue reading →
It’s a daily voice, like a friend you talk to on the phone every day. The closest thing to this kind of writing prior to blogging was the daily columnist (when did those go out? or did they ever exist?). … Continue reading →
[NOTE: First published here in June of 2006.] I try to do about three miles of brisk walking every day for exercise. On rainy or snowy days, I’m off to the gym and its treadmill, which feels like–well, like being … Continue reading →
I’m easing back into writing about politics and the news of the day, but slowly. It’s a strange in-between time right now. I also of course have extra things to do connected with Gerard’s death, including corresponding with some of … Continue reading →
Gerard died peacefully in the small hours of the morning. He left instructions to me for two last posts of his that he wanted me to publish on his blog. I will probably do that tomorrow. I also will be … Continue reading →
I saw the headline of this article – “San Francisco falls into the abyss,” and it certainly struck home: Some blame San Francisco’s high cost of living for the exodus. San Francisco housing costs have contributed to this loss, but … Continue reading →