When I got my cancer diagnosis and opted for surgery, I entertained thoughts that this could be it. My optimistic self thought, “This will be a bumpy ride.” But my pessimistic self understood that any surgery has risks. Joan Rivers, for example. That...
When I was nine, the city built an ice rink and I wanted to learn to skate. My father bought us some cheap skates and I walked up there every day after school so I could fall on my ass. I clung to the railing on the wall and pulled myself along, inev...
I have a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT in today’s Picayune about my future. But first, a bit of background. Thanks to my cancer and surgery, I’ve had way too much time to think of existential issues lately. There are the practical things, like how it hurts to p...
When I first went to the Moth to tell stories, back in 2017, one of the regulars there was a woman around my age who consistently told moving stories and told them well. She was naturally funny and got lots of laughs. The crowd and the judges loved h...
One of the Homeric tales in my family, retold at gatherings with my brothers, is called The Epiphany on the Big Dipper. Here is that tale… From the late 1960s to the mid 1970s, my family made an annual visit to Geauga Lake, an amusement park in Ohio....
The past two weeks have been as busy as possible without some tragedy befalling, but we were very near tragedy. We fell for a phishing scam. My friends, it’s not fun. My wife took the call and fell under the spell of the man on the phone. She believe...
I was in Brooklyn, New York the other day and walked my kid’s dog to the bodega to get a sandwich. If you’re not familiar, a bodega is a corner convenience store/delicatessen crammed into the smallest space imaginable. They offer one of everything in...
I’m writing you from Brooklyn, New York, where I’m visiting my kid. Things are strange here compared to the suburbs of Lansing, but the basics still work fine. Smile at someone’s dog as they walk by and you get a smile back, either from the dog or th...
A new book is making the rounds of popularity in the circles where I hang out (Twitter and Substack) as writer after writer proclaims the book’s awesomeness. It’s Slow Productivity by Cal Newport, and I’m never going to read it. It’s not that I think...