I failed my stress test. I have high cholesterol.  That’s part of being Jewish.  Along with the rye bread and pastrami.  I didn’t think that much about it, but my doctor was flipped.  Actually, my doctor is flipped.  He was such an asshole, I wanted to switch, but then he went to psychotherapy, went off […]

We’re in Santa Rosa for John and Cristie’s wedding. A few years back I would have declined. Now I know life is solely about these moments. Getting together and marking occasions. After landing in Oakland, we drove through Petaluma. In case you don’t know it, that was the name of a Norman Greenbaum album. Northern […]

The flight attendant asked if anybody had change for a twenty. You’re supposed to avoid Southwest Airlines like the plague. It’s a flying bus. You can’t reserve a seat without paying extra. It’s a clusterfuck. So why did I exit the plane with a smile on my face? Maybe it was the ticket taker wearing […]

I purchased "The Gulag Archipelago" before I learned how to pronounce his name. But I never read it. At this late date, I believe "Anna Karenina" to be the best book ever written, but when I attempted "The Gulag Archipelago", I had not read Tolstoy’s work, I was a Russian literature newbie. And I failed. […]