“The Merry Month of May” was the title of a poem written by someone named Thomas Dekker in 1599. I don’t know what May 1599 was like for Good Old Tom, but for me in 2025 it was anything but merry. Looking back, I see it as grey, cold, rainy, and about as merry as a five-mile funeral ...

I wish the Crown Prince of Cardiology, Terrible Tony Tramontano, would bug the DOT about their salt use as much as he does me about mine. Not only would it be better for our ecosystem, but at the same time, it might loosen the stranglehold of the Northern Mailbox Cartel. If you live by an ...

I’ve been in a bunch of casinos, literally from Las Vegas to Kathmandu, and I haven’t lost a nickel in any of them. Know why? I don’t gamble. My reason be summed up by an old adage I heard as a callow youth. It was: If you don’t wanna lose in Las Vegas, as soon as ...

The only one vice I never indulged in, ON PRINCIPLE, is gambling. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve no objection to people gambling, or to gambling itself, or to any victimless crimes — especially not on moral grounds. People have always indulged in those behaviors, they always will, and ...

As a kid, I was as big a jabber-jaw as I am now. Talking was (and if you’re keeping count, still is) my favorite hobby. And why wouldn’t it be? It costs nothing and requires neither formal training, tools nor materials. And best of all — especially in light of today’s status quo — no ...

If there’s any group of people I can’t stand, it’s Faux Connoisseurs. I have no problem with true connoisseurs because they know what they’re talking about. For example, the chef instructors at Paul Smith’s College: They were all experts in their field; in fact, Paul Sorgule, the ...