Departing for Denver Thursday, for a Ski Train and Good Times
I head out the door tomorrow at the crack of dawn for an exciting trip to Denver Colorado. I’ve been fascinated with Denver after my last visit there in 2012. Back then I was hosted by my old friend Peter Heller, and he joined his wife Kim and showed me […]
Jimmy Breslin Knew How to Take the Pulse of the City He Loved
With the passing of Jimmy Breslin, one of the finest newspaper writers to ever clack out a crackling lede on a typewriter, I recalled how fond I was in my earliest years of his writing. I was introduced to Breslin when I got my first job pumping gas in Blawenburg, […]
A Sick Day Forces Me to My Bed All Day Saturday
I don’t take that many sick days, usually about one or two every year. Today it’s a Saturday and I’ve resigned myself to just let myself be sick, though it makes me feel totally disconnected with the rest of the world. There is something about spending the whole day in bed […]
Junkyard Planet Tells the Story of Scrap Recycling Around the World
I’ve been enjoying reading a book I heard about after someone left a comment on Facebook. It’s Junkyard Planet: Travels in the Billion-Dollar Trash Trade, and was written by Adam Minter, who has a particularly relevant background for his topic. Minter grew up in a family of scrap dealers, and […]
Lunch Pals and Breakfast Buddies Fight Loneliness
I read an interesting and slightly depressing report today in the Boston Globe. It said that the number one cause of early death among middle-aged men was not cancer, nor heart disease…but loneliness. WOW. This correlates with another survey where thousands of men were interviewed over a period of 75 […]
Hey Nineteen Plays the Songs of Steely Dan at the Iron Horse
A few years ago, I remember coming back from a really fun evening of music at the Shea, where the Dead Collective played the familiar songs of the Grateful Dead. It was comforting and enjoyable to know the songs, and they chose the true standards, which was even better. I […]
When In Doubt, Bake a Pie
I am amazed sometimes at how easy it used to be to write a daily blog. I would naturally have so much to share, so many things I’ve just read that I’m eager to share, or a comment someone made, or a place that I’m going. It’s harder now, maybe […]
CityBiking from Williamsburg to Downtown Brooklyn
I had a highlight of my recent stay in downtown Brooklyn, Citybiking. I met a friend up in Williamsburg, and after a most excellent lunch at Aurora, we walked around and checked out the funky shops, huge condo developments, and hand-painted billboards, up close. I walked a mile or so […]