Back in the 90s, I worked at an office here in Lansing where a group of coworkers, all men, were primarily focused on three things: Second breakfast Meter maids Sex workers We worked on the eighth floor and had a view of Kalamazoo Avenue. Around nine...
My kid asked me about the ten-cent beer night at Cleveland’s Municipal stadium for a Guardians (nee, Indians) baseball game back in 1975. They had heard about it on a podcast. Of course I remember. Back then, the Guardians played baseball to an almos...
I had the pleasure of attending my brother-in-law’s funeral last week. The pleasure was not in seeing Bucky dead, but in having the chance to see family. Also, this was in a small town in western Wisconsin, and I’m a sucker for small towns. The first...
Thirty-seven years ago, I was driving east through the mountains of Pennsylvania along Interstate 80. It was winter but I’d caught a break in the weather: it was smooth sailing, as I like to say. Certainly no reason to think something bad would happe...
It’s tax season. If you’re only just now realizing that taxes are due on Tuesday, sorry I ruined your weekend, but shame on you for relying on this newsletter to remind you of such a pain in the ass. It’s called tax season because it technically last...
Back in fifth grade, I started having panic attacks over being late to school. That was the year my older brothers had moved on to high school, leaving me to walk by myself. It was an odd combination of growing social awareness, self-image, and basic...
When I was a kid, I memorized all the dialogue in the old sit-com Hogan’s Heroes. Unless you’re of a certain age, you probably haven’t heard of the show. It made a mockery of the suffering caused by World War II, portraying Germans as buffoons, and m...
This is a story about my life in politics, but it won’t be political. At least not the way you might think of politics today. For instance, I’m not a billionaire, so I won’t ever be invited to the White House to consult on how to establish a monopoly...
I grew up in the hey-day of sugar cereals, back when they didn’t even bother to disguise their main ingredient. Back then, Corn Pops were Sugar Pops, and Honey Smacks were Sugar Puffs, and Golden Crisps were Super Sugar Crisps. Our father hated the i...
Many years ago I took a job as a UNIX Systems Engineer. It was cool, and I liked working with Unix, but, one day, I found myself locked in a half-assed server room on a Saturday night with a woman who, like me, had no idea what we should do. UNIX is...