Look, we're not born knowing how to do everything. Some things needs to be learned. How to dress for the job you want, rather than the job you have, for example. Or when to laugh at a Shakespeare comedy on a school trip (answer: when your teacher does). And, for me, it was beards. Oh, … Continue reading On Beards
I’m thinking of becoming one of those fancy lifestyle gurus, with a blog that tells you, the ignorant reader, how much better your life would be if only you did as I told you. I think my whole life has been building toward this point. Why am I suddenly so confident? Easy! I have changed … Continue reading On Self-Care
We have been here before. I am not giving up sugar. That would be crazy. And sad. And, most relevantly, impossible. I am giving up on: sugary snacks, cakes, biscuits/cookies, desserts. No more cocoas at the end of the day. Just a little splash of chocolate here and there. It sounds hellish but…it’s not. Not … Continue reading On Sugar
Based on the New York magazine series, here. Tea I was not much of a tea-drinker back in the old-country, but genes will assert themselves eventually. My wife discovered this particular brand and I like it so much that the raspberry flavor has become my “treat myself” tea on long work days. I'm prepared to … Continue reading What #SmallChange Can’t Live Without
As the words on my gravestone will emphasize: it could always be worse. I don’t do drugs or smoke. I gamble only with the amount of bacon I choose to wrap around my heart. “Drinking” means a bottle of beer occasionally after dinner…maybe two if my wife is having one of her shindigs. I don’t … Continue reading On Writing Expenses
Nostalgia is both a feeling and a retail pattern. I’ve noticed that it seems to increase as a person (this person) gets older. In my early life, remembering the past took a very specific form. When I was growing up, there was no choice for me or my brothers: we had to be collectors. I … Continue reading On Nostalgia
It’s a little after 6.30 a.m. and, standing on the porch of my first apartment in America, I watch the torrential downpour outside. It’s dramatic: rain in an angry, determined deluge that just doesn't happen back home, and I'm glad I'm living a little way up a hill and not in a flood zone. The … Continue reading On First Impressions
Finally, a political movement we can all get behind. Unless you can't eat donuts or drink coffee. In which case, I'm just so very sorry. Save
So, it's Sunday morning, and I’m awake early and ready to do…something. This is why I’m soon standing in a coffee shop, ordering my medium latte and cinnamon roll. Order placed, I take my note pad and iPad to a 2-seat table. I check the football scores, begin what is, I discover, a cinnamon roll … Continue reading On Becoming Joe
Small Change on Strangers 