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 ...

When I wake up, I’m never a bundle of either fire or joy. I don’t like mornings, never have, and I’ll leave greeting them up to anyone who wants that onerous task. That said, last Sunday morn was a real dupa-dragger, even by my standards. The previous day I’d had a magic gig at the ...

According to the cliché, old age is not for sissies. And now that I am, by any measure old, I couldn’t agree more. Of course there’s all the slippage and slopage of both mind and body. And while I don’t like them, I expected them in one form or another. But what I didn’t expect, and ...