Category Archives: Personal

A Shared Approach to Addressing Our Housing Crisis

Posted on 06/25/2019 by

The United States is experiencing a severe housing crisis. Cities with high housing demand are woefully short of supply. Over the past two decades, monthly rents have increased 40% more than wages. Over the past two generations, the ratio of … Continue reading →

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Good Catholic Boys: Reject thy Church

Posted on 06/05/2019 by

“A reminder that Catholics should not support LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Catholic faith and morals. They are especially harmful to children.” Thomas Tobin, Bishop of Rhode … Continue reading →

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“You’re Lucky”

Posted on 05/28/2019 by

“You’re Lucky.” I hear that phrase every day. Sometimes more than once. It’s the ubiquitous response I receive from folks when they learn that I live in Cambridge, that I travel by bike, that I retired at age 58, that … Continue reading →

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Reconsidering Righteousness

Posted on 04/23/2019 by

In Testament of Youth, Vera Brittain writes, “most of us have to be self-righteous before we can be righteous.” This implies that we go through the storm and come into the light. Though I agree that the self-righteous are intolerable, … Continue reading →

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Alan Drury, Charles Dickens, and the Duality of Good Times and Bad

Posted on 04/09/2019 by

Sixty years ago Alan Drury published Advise and Consent, perhaps the most famous political potboiler ever written. The novel spent 102 weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and inspired Otto Preminger’s … Continue reading →

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First Kiss Girl / First Kiss Boy

Posted on 04/02/2019 by

I woke this morning to the memories of first kiss; a rather pleasant way to greet the day.   My first real kiss arrived unexpectedly in 1971. My family had recently moved to Oklahoma; I was invited to a party … Continue reading →

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Their Eyes Were Watching God

Posted on 03/19/2019 by

The longer I live, the less I understand religion. I don’t understand why humans crave order and answers so much that we proclaim as truths what are, at best, idealized fables; why we hate our fellow man and why we … Continue reading →

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If You’re Going to Steal our Title, at Least Give Us the Bucks

Posted on 03/12/2019 by

According to Work + Money Magazine, six of the ten highest paid jobs of 2017 have one thing in common. That’s in addition to the fact that they are male-dominated techie-jobs with elusive descriptions that didn’t exist a generation ago. … Continue reading →

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Thanks to the Academy…

Posted on 02/19/2019 by

This Sunday night, the Oscars will be broadcast across America, across the World. The Academy Awards are our cultural State of the Union. The annual pulchritude parade reflects our social and aesthetic coherence—and dissonance—by applauding achievement in that squiggly gap … Continue reading →

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Sherlock’s Last Case: Holding a Magnifying Glass Up to Changing Theater

Posted on 02/12/2019 by

Everybody was there. Actors, house managers, directors. Folks I’ve met in and around Boston theater over the past twenty years. So many theater insiders lent an expectant buzz to the Huntington Theater’s opening production of Sherlock’s Last Case. I wondered … Continue reading →

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