Then refused to take it back — twice … Sometime in 1966 Bob Dylan lost a million-dollar guitar — and when the finder phoned up, couldn’t be bothered to get it back. The guy on the other end of the line was New Jersey charter pilot Vic Quinto. He moved a lot of Albert Grossman’s talent and […]
Rep. Clyde’s IRS dust-up raises questions … During a May 12th, 2021, US Congressional hearing, an obscure Georgia representative leapt to international infamy with a lie so colossal it made headlines around the world, even in this jaded post-Trump era. Speaking of the January 6th riot at the US Capitol, Andrew Clyde of Athens, GA, […]
An old fart learns to lighten up … A while back, I saw a tweet that said: I can’t decide if people who wear pajamas in public have given up on life, or are living it to the fullest. That little sentence crawled into my head like an earwig and stuck there. It became my Zen […]
How one shift in your thinking solves multiple problems … My first full-time job in public relations was with Walt Disney World in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It was grunt-level stuff, but what I learned there would fuel my career as a copywriter and ghostwriter up to today. Now I’m not talking about “tips […]
In the South, etiquette is a game of chess … Lots of folks are moving to the South these days, and I’m gonna do all y’all transplants a big favor. You can thank me later. There’s a lot that goes unspoken down here, so it’s real easy to screw up and not be aware of […]
The lighter side of Jesus of Nazareth … When comedian Alan King was asked “What is the essence of Jewish humor?” he answered with a story. A guy’s having lunch at a Jewish deli. He flags down the waiter and says, “Taste the soup.” The waiter asks, “Is something wrong?” “Taste the soup.” “Is it […]
The perks and pitfalls of mindful dreaming … I was still a little boy when I became terrified of falling asleep. You see, I was being murdered in my dreams. Sometimes, my stalker was me. Looking back, I think it was the onset of an early adolescence that triggered the nightmares. My old self had […]
Neuroscience is both more and less advanced than it’s rumored to be … Aside from the eternal mystery of why reality exists at all rather than not, our own conscious awareness of it is likely the most baffling puzzle humans face. Our discoveries since the dawn of neuroscience in the mid-1800s are genuinely astounding, and […]
What you leave out means as much as what you put in … There are three sides in a triangle. Four gospels in the New Testament. And five ingredients in a tortilla española. Eggs (5), potatoes (3), onions (2), olive oil and salt. Nothing more, nothing less. Así se hace, so it is done. Back […]
And who grills beans anyway? … A rolling stone gathers no moss. A watched pot never boils. Fish don’t fry in the kitchen. And beans don’t burn on the grill. It is known. But wait, hold the phone a sec. Of course fish fries in the kitchen. Where else are you gonna fry it, the […]