After I posted last week’s Dope on Facebook, one of the comments was from my childhood pal, Bernie Branch. The column was on the X-mas tree that held sway — figuratively and literally — in Berkeley Square, Way Back When. It was huge, festive and fearsome, and it tugged at our ...

Last week’s snow storm was a pain in the prat. But along with sloppy roads, power outages, and slipped discs, it did one thing wonderfully — it blanketed enough snow to give the area a lovely White Christmas look. But is that look, to quote the song, “... just like the ones we used to ...

When they talk about biologist Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution, many people refer to it as “only the strong survive.” While that might be true in some cases, it misses Darwin’s main point, which is “the most ADAPTABLE members of a species survive.” F’rinstance, while we ...

My love affair with Mad magazine began when I was 11, and it was love at first sight. But it was no mere fling: I stayed a diehard Mad fan into adulthood. In fact, my love affair with Mad lasted longer than Mad itself, which in 2019 quit doing new stuff and starting recycling the old. Now, ...

It was time for my annual physical and I was in the examining room of Young Doctor Bartos, when in she walked, smile on face, clipboard in hand. Greetings dispensed with, her eyes glued to the clipboard, she checked my lab results. OK ... good, good ... excellent ... good ... excellent — ...

Last week as I was walking in Nori’s for my daily dose of caffeine and consciousness-raising, who to my wandering eyes should appear but my pal Steve Erman. “Hey, meshugge,” I said in my usual greeting to him. “Good to see you,” he said in his. Then, those cliches out of the ...