Life doesn’t unfold like you expect it to. Oh, I’m not talking about accidents so much as expectations. That’s right, people die before their time. You get sick and you never really recover. You don’t get into the school you want to… But you meet people who change your life. They take hold of your […]

The Fall Line: How American Ski Racers Conquered a Sport on the Edge What does it take to win? The new age snake oil salesmen will tell you it’s all about attitude. The Silicon Valley titans will tell you it’s all about failing. But the truth is it’s a feeling deep inside that you can […]

Billy Joel by Fred Schruers It really was different. It bugs me that people claim otherwise, the youngsters who were not around and the oldsters hanging on by a thread. First and foremost, as Malcolm Gladwell said in “Outliers,” timing is everything. Jason Flom’s father may have been blackballed because he was Jewish, but he […]

I woke up thinking about Turkish drummers It didn’t take long, I don’t think much about Turkish drummers But it made me think of Germany and the guy who sold me cigarettes Who’d been in the Afghan secret police Who made the observation That it’s hard To live “Get Up Jonah” Bruce Cockburn Get Up […]