“You just don’t understand,” whined Ralphie Stardust. Actually, I understood perfectly. I just didn’t agree with him, which to Ralphie is the same thing, since he has the lock on Truth. This time his Truth, and the topic of this convo, was his latest guiding life principle. Note I ...

Last Saturday afternoon, I was in my chair lost in some weird reverie, when the phone rang. “Huh? Whuh?” I yelped, shocked by the sudden intrusion of reality. I picked up the receiver, said hello, and was greeted by a cheery robot recording. “Hello,” it said. “This is a message ...

Whenever my childhood pal Pete MacIntyre talks about growing up in Our Home Town, he always describes it as “idyllic.” Mine was idyllic as well — till the day after Labor Day, 1952. For it was then I said goodbye to my life of Sweetness and Light, and said hello to The Cold Cruel ...

It was way past midnight, and in my typical fashion, I was in my Lay-Z-Dope surfing the net, when I ran across an article in an astronomy magazine on Deep Space. I found it interesting, especially since I skipped all the scientific jargon and mathematic formulas. But I was stopped short by a ...

One of my favorite rock groups is the Boston wildmen, The J. Geils Band. And one of my favorite songs of theirs is “First I Look At The Purse.” The essence of the song is, the singer cares about only one thing in women — “if the dollar bills are crisp.” The song itself is a ...

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of a coffee date with a pal I haven’t seen in years, Barb Merritt. Barb and I go way back and are curiously connected. In the ’70s I knew who Barb was, but we never became friends till about 25 years ago. Right from the start, our relationship went to ...