When I was in fourth grade, my penchant for collecting took a strange turn and got me into trouble at school. Shame and fear of being ostracized tormented me. All because of some straws. I had dabbled in collecting before then with stamps, stickers,...

I know the climate crisis is kicking our collective ass, with heat domes in the south and biblical flooding in the northeast, but my lawn has never been greener during July and August. Twenty years ago, the lawn would be burned to a crisp and I could...

When I was thirteen, I saw the movie Palm Springs Weekend, which was one of those inane Frankie and Annette movies but with Troy Donahue and Connie Stevens. They made it in 1963, the year before I was born, but I was watching this around 1977. Sure,...

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...