The Wine Snob
It was November, 1969 and there was a grey cloud over our house because Auntie Rose and Uncle Frank were coming to stay with us for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Growing Up
Career Path
When Noah asked me how I chose my career I was caught off-guard. Noah is a great kid; he’s 19 and attends community college in upstate Florida. He is my brother’s ex-step-grandson but he maintains close ties with my brother, who is really the only father figure the kid ever knew. Noah’s father was a
The Ways of Martyrs
My high school friend Ron was in town from Seattle, dealing with his elderly parents. Ron and I managed to make it through the Catholic school system relatively unscathed, although neither of us identifies as Catholic anymore.
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Public Speaking, 101
It was during my freshman year of college that I enrolled in an elective class called “Intro to Public Speaking.” On the first day of the class the instructor announced that there was an error in the catalogue and that the REAL name of the class was “Intro to Pulblic Performance.” Apparently, I was the
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The Cat Mother
My coworker Grace hails from Taiwan and she loves to share stories of her upbringing. “My mom was a classic Tiger Mom,” she likes to say; “I’m not sure if she was my mother or my warden.”
A Dog Chases Cars
My Uncle Frank considered himself to be quite the ladies’ man. The fact that during 80 some-odd years on this earth there was not another human being who even remotely regarded him that way was immaterial. In his mind he had a way with the ladies.
Oh, What a Night!
When they were young my parents would host an annual New Year’s Eve party that people would talk about until the next year’s New Year’s Eve party. One party, in 1953, was so extraordinary that old timers were still talking about it 60 years later — at Mom’s funeral. But my younger brother and I were
Up on the Roof
My younger brother was as angry as I’ve ever seen him. He and his wife decided that their 16 year-old grandson was mature enough to be left alone for an evening while they met some friends for dinner and drinks, but in my brother’s absence his grandson found some beer and wine in the fridge
The Grudge
In 1932 my mother’s father married Katie Novak; it was the second marriage for both: He was a widower with six kids; she was a widow with two daughters and no income. This was not “The Brady Bunch:” he needed a housekeeper and she needed a paycheck.
The Great Escape
When I was eight I decided to run away from home and live with my grandmother where, I assumed, life would be simpler. I was undeterred by the fact the I lived in Fort Lauderdale and my grandmother lived in Cleveland. Using the logic I employ to this day, I figured the details would work