A few years back, one of my coworkers called me by the name “Marty,” rather than “Mickey.“ I’d stopped into his office, chatted, and we were saying our farewells when he said it: “Take it easy, Marty.” It took me by surprise, and I didn’t correct him...

I love riding bicycles but learning to ride was clouded by fear, pain and envy. To begin with, we were not a “cool-bike” family. Our bikes weren’t even decent. We got a couple of hand-me-down bikes from our cousins up the street. Or, rather, my older...

It’s been a month since last I picayuned and a lot is going on but, then, I’m not here to tell you everything. This is a picayune. But a couple of perfectly picayune things happened on the way to Shakespeare in the Arboretum. Shakespeare in the Arb T...

Back in high school, I was captain of the baseball team so, at the end of the season, I gave a little speech at the awards banquet. The team chipped-in and we presented a gift to our coaches. I probably said four or five minutes worth of stuff. The s...

Back in 1988, trying to figure out how to learn to be a writer, I signed up for a summer workshop at The University of Iowa. That’s the same place where one of the most famous writing workshops, the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, happens, but this was not t...

I went to The Blind Pig this weekend to hear a band. Unexpectedly, I had to confront two of my greatest fears. The Blind Pig, if I haven’t mentioned it before, is a smallish bar on the northeast edge of downtown Ann Arbor. There’s a raised platform a...

Here is a short, true story: I am four years old and just finished washing myself in the bathtub like a big boy. I watch the whirlpool at the drain and, when it’s all gone, I step out of the tub dripping wet and towel myself dry. Mom has left clean j...

Fulton Avenue in Cleveland runs along the top of the hill overlooking the valley carved by Old Man Creek. There’s a fence in the brush at the top of that hill, and my father found a hole in that fence. I don’t remember how he found it, or if he heard...

I have always been a homebody and I’m approaching an age when it’s increasingly easier to stay home. I love playing with the dogs, we live in a quiet neighborhood, and we have internet. What more could I ask for? My first job out of college had me tr...

Broken systems have been on my mind of late—transportation, public health, safety—which reminded me of my father and his system for cars. He had a penchant for cheap, used cars. His favorites were both cheap and used. His heyday for crappy cars were...