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A sickness perhaps, but not a hobby

I was recently speaking to a friend about hobbies, and she claimed that her hobby was shopping.  When I expressed my doubts that shopping is a legitimate hobby, she attempted to equate it to poker, golf and reading (three of my hobbies), claiming that the pleasure she derives from shopping is no different than the…

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Human targets

For the past month of so, I’ve been working on improving my golf game by hitting whiffle balls in the front yard.  The goal has been to hit the ball as close as possible to my daughter without actually smacking her in the head or torso. A raising of the stakes, if you will.  Since…

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In twenty-five years…

… we will wonder why everyone in the world was obsessed with vampires. … we will fail to understand why people opted to eat raw fish when perfectly good cooked fish was readily available. … we will be amazed (like my generation is about cigarettes) that people didn’t assume that the use of a cell…

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Nursery rhymes, my style

Amongst my thousands of other projects, I’ve been working on a book of inappropriate nursery rhymes, based upon this little ditty that I came up with a couple years ago. Mary had a little lamb Its fleece was white as snow And everywhere that Mary went The lamb was sure to go… Doodie What do…

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Melting ice or a bullet in the head?

There’s been much discussion over the potential loss of the polar bears as a result of the recent melting of polar ice. Many environmentalists have adopted the polar bear as their symbol of the dangers of global warming. While I have also grown concerned over the environment in recent years and don’t want to see…

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I will pledge whatever my teacher says…

I’m just about finished reading THE BOOK THIEF, which provides a very interesting view of Nazi Germany from the perspective of a child.  Among other things, the book portrays a country that is fanatic in assuring its citizens support the German ideals and purpose at all times.  Children are indoctrinated into these beliefs through rituals…

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Too close for comfort

From time to time my in-laws have debated moving from their sizable home in the Berkshires into a 350 square foot, single room apartment that they own in Manhattan.   I tried to convince them to purchase the small house next door to us when it was for sale about a year ago, but they thought…

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The choice is made!

After publicly flogging my fellow book club member (her words) and having another member propose that we may need to consider group therapy, a choice was finally made: BOTH WAYS IS THE ONLY WAY I WANT IT by Maile Meloy, a short story collection published last year but just came out in paperback. I chose…

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Childhood bogeyman returns

When I was a kid, my town and the surrounding communities were terrorized by the Blackstone Valley sniper. For a period of about two years, someone was firing a rifle into picture windows at the silhouettes standing behind the curtains. For a while, I remember being forced to leave the lights turned off by my…

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DJ blunders and tribulations

Just as we were leaving to yesterday’s wedding, more than an hour away from home, my DJ partner, Bengi, noticed that the a tire on the truck was flat. Not trusting the spare, we got creative and managed to load all of our equipment into my Subaru Outback. It was crowded and a little precarious,…

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