Archive for June 2023

I surprised Elysha with flowers on Sunday. I bought flowers for Clara in celebration of her dance recital, and I bought flowers for two of Elysha’s former students who were also in the show, but I also bought flowers for Elysha, recognizing that throughout this year of dance, she has been responsible for all of…

Martha Stewart – age 81 – appeared on the cover of this year’s Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue. Since she appeared in the magazine in early May, I’ve heard three people speak about her appearance on the cover in a less than complimentary way. All three denigrated her physical appearance to varying degrees. My thought:…

Bruce Springsteen once said that his goal is to overwhelm his audience in the first five minutes of his concerts. After that, he says, he’s got them for the rest of the night. I can verify this. I have seen him perform many, many times, including in 2016 during his “The River” tour (when he…

Charlie plays second base for his Little League team. I noticed that when there’s a baserunner on second, he often chats the player up quite a bit. “I saw you talking to the baserunners tonight,” I said to him recently. “You know those guys?” “No,” he said. “I’m trying to distract them. Keep them from…

More than a decade ago, I began studying the financial markets simply because I was curious. I’d read books like Good to Great and become interested in why some businesses succeeded while others failed. Those explanations turn out to be good stories. I didn’t plan on becoming an investor, though eventually, I did. The profits…

It astounds me that during Pride Month, I live in a region of the country – New England – where flying the pride flag at the elementary school where I teach and the football stadium where I’ve spent so many Sundays is considered normal, acceptable, and entirely appropriate by the majority of people around me.…

Charlie came downstairs early on Saturday morning, picked up a book, sat down on the couch with the cat, and spent nearly an hour reading. His weekend was dawning, and his first choice was to read. His sister was still in bed at the time, also reading. I know what you’re thinking: What a couple…

Behold. The Russian cover for my novel “The Other Mother.” I like it a lot. My Russian friend says it’s very Soviet in style. My students thought it looked like the work of a toddler. No accounting for taste. Also, they probably said that just to hurt me a little.

Amanda Gorman’s poem “The Hill We Climb” has been moved from the elementary section to the middle school section of a Miami-Dade County public school after a parent complaint and school review. A parent of a student at Bob Graham Education Center objected to the poem, claiming it “is not educational and have indirectly hate…

Every month I report the progress of my yearly goals in order to monitor progress (or the lack thereof) and hold myself accountable.   The following are the results from May 2023. PERSONAL FITNESS 1. Don’t die. No near-death experiences in May. Also no death. As always, I plan on living forever or die trying.…