They took the subway car out of Golden’s Deli today. Golden’s wasn’t Katz’s, where Smitty took me a couple of months ago. But it was a real kosher deli on Staten Island, where knishes and pastrami aren’t as automatic as … Continue reading →
Karl works at the same chain I do. He’s a cranky mess of a smart guy, trying to figure out how to live a real life, hold his health together and maintain a relationship with his son as the world … Continue reading →
So – December 31st. Every year, we stand in a long hall, staring at a door. We can see the side facing us, the details of the year coming to an end. The other side, once we open it, will … Continue reading →
The old TV show began ‘There are six million stories in the Naked City’ and certainly plenty of them had to be fish stories – New York was, after all, the place PT Barnum had a museum (with live … Continue reading →
I was speaking to a woman in the neighborhood the other day. We’ve known each other for over ten years. She was sitting in the car, waiting for her husband to join her on a trip to their daughter’s in … Continue reading →
There’s a man I know, who makes his living as a salesman like I do. I’ll call him Otto. He works for the same company as me, so I see him at sales meetings and the occasional Sunday night … Continue reading →
It’s been my conviction for a long time that whoever invented the shower should be given the Nobel Peace Prize. If I could chart the growth of my knowledge of human beings and particularly my own quirky little self, I … Continue reading →
Zuccotti Park is chaos. It’s a zoo. It’s America. First of all, calling that block Anybody ‘Park’ was delusional to begin with. It was never more than a couple of marble shelves with a few spindly trees in odd places; … Continue reading →
It isn’t easy being happy. The older you are, the harder it gets. There’s no feeling happy without kicking up the dust of past disappointments, self-delusion, all the foolishness. The things that made you happy still do; the uncertain, … Continue reading →
The power of silence has always driven me crazy. And I’m not the only one. One of my best friends in high school went through a (short) period of thinking of himself as a lady killer. Anyone who’s a friend … Continue reading →
