Meeting a Doctor and Talking About the Worst Case
The other night I joined my friend Joe and my cousin Paul and some others and played the drums. It was a lot of fun. When I had a break I sat next to the wife of a man who played bass, and we began talking. “What do you do?” […]
When African Americans Light Up, It’s Usually a Newport
When I pumped gas as a 14-year-old youth, many of my customers were African-American nurses who worked down the road at the Institute, a place where crazy people used to live until a few decades ago. Often they would order cigarettes…and rarely did they want any other brand than Newports. […]
When Your Members Are Jobless, You Sympathize with the Gov
The disconnect between unionized public employees and blue collar urban unionized workers is coming to a boil. In a story in Tuesday’s WSJ, William McGurn wrote about this rocky relationship, which is made much worse by the high level of unemployment faced by people like ironworkers and construction laborers. It’s […]
Social Media Engineers are Fanning Out Across the Neighborhood
An insurance company sent a pair of young experts to our cafe this morning. It was about social media. Heidi Warner is a Social Media Engineer, and in this spirit, she shows business owners how to publish blogs, keep up their facebooks, tweet, and many other of 2011’s tricks. She […]
Who Was The Man Who Saved Me? HGW Gets His Recognition
Last night’s mancave movie was my all-time favorite, The Lives of Others. Devorah asked me why it was my fav, and when I answered, it gave me some new insight into what makes a great movie. It was that the central character, Wiesler, who is such the epitome of evil […]
My Five Goals for 2011
Yesterday’s auspicious date of 1-1-11 made me pause and think of even more magical things that should have been happening that afternoon at 1:11 pm, or at 11:11 pm after we had all retired. Beside gawking at the numbers what does one do with them? In my case I take […]
New Year’s Eve Memories Over the Years
It’s New Year’s Eve 2010, and I find myself in a familiar place…the kitchen where I grew up in Blawenburg NJ. I’m about to walk across the street to my sister Annie’s house and join several other familiar faces to celebrate the New Year. Sadly, two of my sisters appear […]
She Eats Toilet Paper Slivers Every Day, Another Sleeps with the Hairdryer
There is a woman in Alabama who eats toilet tissue. She grabs a two-ply sheet, splits it in half, and lets that thin sheet melt on her tongue. She eats the paper all day, and has been at this since she was a small child. “I love the way it […]