Archive for May 2010
Three biggest mistakes that parents make
In speaking with a friend about her son today, she asked: Based upon your teaching, what are the three biggest mistakes that you see parents make. I answered without hesitation: 1.Telling a son or daughter that “it’s okay to defend yourself if someone has hit you first.” I inform my students to defend themselves with…
Read MoreThe annoying gadget guy
There are three kinds of guys in this world. There is the guy who does not care about or own gadgets. There is the guy who loves gadgets but does not need to talk about them. This guy’s cellular phone, digital camera, video camera, laptop, and GPS unit remain safely tucked away unless needed. For…
Read MoreMy life
Carol Goldberg wrote a piece in last week’s Sunday Hartford Courant about upcoming books by Connecticut authors, and UNEXPECTEDLY, MILO was included on her list. I’m honored to have my book included on the list and am grateful to Goldberg for her generous comments regarding it, but I am also amused by the aspects of…
Read MoreThe rest of the story
By request, the rest of the highlights of my lip-syncing career: In 1989, Bengi, Coog, and I headed to Salisbury Beach in northern Massachusetts to create a lip-syncing music video in a studio along the boardwalk. I pretended to play the drums and sing backup to Skid Row’s “Youth Gone Wild” and Dokken’s “In My…
Read MoreMemories I’d like to forget
While playing Sweet Child O’ Mine at last night’s wedding, Bengi and I reminisced about a time when we were seventeen years old. We were both in high school, working for a McDonald’s in Milford, Massachusetts, and in an effort to build morale, management decided to sponsor a lip-sync contest, complete with a cash prize.…
Read MoreDead
Things that I can’t imagine not doing when I’m dead include: Music… the thought that I will never again hear the music of Paul Simon, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Cat Stevens, Springsteen, The Who, Van Morrison, or the Stones just kills me. Sports… I try to imagine the thought of shooting a basketball or hitting…
Read MoreNames
The Facts of Life was a sitcom about four girls and their scraggly old headmistress, Mrs. Garrett. It was a painfully classic 80’s television programs that proselytized and preached lessons of morality to viewers each week. It’s also one of Elysha’s favorite childhood shows, so I hear about it from time to time. We were…
Read MoreOutsourcing my underwear
It’s a problem that most men face. We purchase underwear and socks and then forget about ever purchasing another pair, assuming that our current supply will get us through the rest of our lives. Then one day I hear my wife call out from the laundry room. “I’m throwing out this pair of boxers.” “Why?”…
Read MoreIt’s all about the shoes
In the film The Shawshank Redemption, protagonist Andy Dufresne wears the warden’s shoes during his escape from the prison, walking right by guards and inmates with the shiny, black dress shoes on his feet. Quite a departure from his brown work boots. In explaining Dufresne’s ability to wear these shoes past so many people without…
Read MoreThe verdict
While I wait for Taryn to finish falling in love with CHICKEN SHACK and possibly negotiate the subject of my next novel, I sit and wait. Since the choice of my next story might be left in the hands of my publisher, I cannot begin either one of the books that I have planned until…
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