A couple Fridays ago, the Winter Carnival Committee held a drawing for their fabulous raffle. And when I say fabulous, I mean fabulous, since the prize was a complete set of Garry Trudeau Winter Carnival buttons. And against overwhelming odds and by sheer fluke, I was the winner. The odds ...

As a young boy I loved the idea of pranks, and now as a man (an OLD man, at that), I still do. Then again, that only makes sense, since men are nothing but boys who have to work for a living and can legally drive, drink and smoke pot. Note, I said I love “the idea” of pranks. Because ...

One of the most glorious events of my childhood was the May Festival. Of course, to me any outdoor event in May would’ve been glorious, if for no other reason than it was warm. Sadly, the May Festival is no more, having been replaced by Field Days. But, unfortunately, any gains made in ...

When last week’s column hit print, I was surprised by folks’ reaction to it. It was about me running the qualifier for the Boston Marathon, and while I figured that’d be enough running columns for a while — maybe even a long while — I was wrong. It turned out my legion of fans (all ...

At the tender age of 12, I first read about the Boston Marathon. “Wow!” I thought. “That’s the perfect challenge for me!” Actually, it was less a challenge than a wholesale delusion. I didn’t run, I didn’t jog — hell, I didn’t even jog my memory. But that all changed in ...

I’ve had pets my whole life and my current roster is two dogs, one cat and one goldfish. Due to poor planning (or more honestly, no planning), we’re all roughly the same equivalent age. One dog is 10, the other is 11; the cat is 12, and the goldfish is 18. This means, to use my nephew’s ...