HIPAA laws be damned. I’m going to break some patient/doctor confidentiality. It’s legal if the patient does it, right? I’m not the one who took the oath. At the end of September, my annual medical examination was looming large on my calendar with a big red “X”. This past year I’ve had more medical “nuisances” […]

Forty-three years ago, in September 1978, a rock album was released that revolutionized the music industry. The group Blondie released their third studio album “Parallel Lines”. The disc contained songs blending different genres of music and ushered in Dance Rock as a new category. The smash number one single Heart of Glass can still be […]

“You better stop. Look around. Here comes your Covid-19th nervous breakdown.” Thank you Mick Jagger for letting me take liberties with your song lyrics. The words are fitting for how I feel today. A few short months ago I thought America had the coronavirus pandemic under control. Restrictions were loosening up. My life was slowly […]

I admit I was a victim of media hype regarding the arrival of hurricane Henri a few weeks ago. The weather people can only be The Boy Who Cried Wolf so many times before they correctly forecast a storm. The week leading up to Henri, weather projections showed a stream of wacky noodles indicating potential […]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” Thank you, Charles Dickens for summing up my week-long summer vacation with my family in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. With July 2021 being the wettest month in the past one hundred years, why should the week I picked for our family […]

While endlessly scrolling Facebook, I saw an ad for an audition to become part of a Boston improvisational comedy theater troupe. I’ve always loved entertaining audiences through my writing and cartooning. Acting seemed like the next logical step. I filled out the online application not really knowing what to expect. When I hit the submit […]

Last week’s July Fourth holiday didn’t quite go as planned. I was supposed to be sitting atop the White Mountains breathing fresh air and basking in the sunshine. Instead, I was sitting in Stoneham at my dining room table enjoying a Thanksgiving feast.  The washout weather was a big factor in my change of plans. […]

My cat, Little Bear, was adopted by my family in 2007 when she was a year old. I didn’t change her name, it seemed to fit her. She looked like a miniature Kodiak bear. She was midnight black with bright green eyes. The perfect embodiment of a Halloween cat. Her temperament belied her spooky looks. She […]

    My eyes spring open in the quiet darkness. It’s 3 a.m. according to the glowing numbers on the antiquated clock radio on my nightstand. A high-intensity flashlight beam shines directly in my eyes. I slowly realize it’s the almost-full moon piercing through my skylight. Tonight it’s unusually bright.  Waking up at 3 a.m. […]

The recent CDC declaration regarding mask wearing took me by surprise. I was gathering up baseball equipment while getting ready to take my granddaughter to her Thursday afternoon T-ball game, when Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Center For Disease Control, appeared on the television screen with a simple statement that stopped me in […]