Local construction recently caused my driveway to be inaccessible for five days. During that timespan, I battled over the limited number of parking spots in our area with my similarly-disadvantaged neighbors. However, I was fairly sanguine about the situation. It harkened back to a period when the use of my…

While I enjoy the music of Jackson Browne, I wouldn’t say he is one of my top 10 favorite recording artists. Remarkably, over the past 40 years (of his remarkable 50+ year career), I have seen him in concert three times, each show spaced 20 years apart (1982, 2002, 2022)…

It can be sad when a friendship ends. But when one person commits a crime in the process of ending the relationship, that transposes the situation into a betrayal. For many years, my brother Eric was friends with a married couple named Steve and Rachel. Steve owned a local bagel…

Last year, I wrote about all the fights I’ve been coerced into during my lifetime. Many times, I’ve stopped short of having a full, physical confrontation. One of those encounters happened 30 years ago, after a Cheap Trick concert, of all things. My friend Paul and I took our girlfriends…

Just as July 5 follows the Fourth of July, the latter date is reliably accompanied by a slew of articles recounting adults who accidentally blew themselves up lighting illegal fireworks. During my college days, I began hosting a July 4 celebration on Long Island in my family’s backyard. The year…

The posting of a venue’s health code status reassures patrons that “you won’t die if you eat here.” For non-restaurants that serve food, it’s a leap of faith that those facilities are clean enough to keep patrons alive. For example, say you attend an author reading at a book store…

The clear distinction between “watching” and causing a commotion was brought into crystal clear resolution at this past Tuesday’s New York primary. While working as a scanner inspector in my Assembly District, I once again encountered an aggressive Republican poll watcher (let’s call him Lee). Lee didn’t make his appearance…

During my recovery from COVID, a side effect was the depressingly large number of well-wishers who thought I’d succumbed to coronavirus prior to 2022. Their fatalistic attitude was either, “Well, hasn’t everyone already gotten it?” …

The easiest way for a kid to lose track of friends is by moving to a different location. Girls are better at collecting addresses, writing letters, and making long-distance phone calls. Before the Internet, those were the available options. I was having very little of it in 1978 when my…