Inquisitive students sometimes asked what my nationality was. When I said Italian, some asked if I knew anyone in the Mafia, especially when The Sopranos was at its height. Sigh. To my knowledge, I do not and never did know anyone in the Mafia, although I suspect that my father knew a few back in the… Continue reading The Italian Query
Category: Personal
View of a Vigil
The big question at the counter-vigil was, of course, “Did you get one?”, referring to the pro-Nazi mailing that some had received in the mail. I had not. But I saw them in the media. Once again the Valley was featured for negative reasons. The occasion was on-the-spot-live reports-satellite vans newsworthy. The mailings were composed of… Continue reading View of a Vigil
Homecomings
By accident, or fate, three consecutive days last week brought my past into the present with a personal “Roots”. On Saturday, I attended my old high school’s first Hall of Fame dinner to honor the first inductee into the Archbishop Carroll Hall of Fame, Barry Kirsch. It is not an exaggeration to say that my… Continue reading Homecomings
A View of the Heart III
Adirondack chairs. A large photo of Adirondack chairs was on the ceiling above the operating table. That was a good sign. My son and daughter-in-law had adopted the chairs as symbols of their pairing, posing in the chair for their engagement and their wedding. Those chairs now sit in my backyard. In the OR, I… Continue reading A View of the Heart III
A View of the Heart II
At Grandview, I had room 205, a semi-private room, to myself. And my nurse let me keep my underwear on under my fashionable hospital gown! And they let me keep the door closed. And I was allowed to go to the bathroom on my own! Life was good, for a hospital. I got cool yellow slipper… Continue reading A View of the Heart II
A View of the Heart
I got up close and personal with the health care system last week when I had to have a second stent placed in a heart artery. At least I didn’t wait to have an actual heart attack this time, as I did 22 years ago. Jogging, my canary-in-the-mine, alerted me to the fact that something was… Continue reading A View of the Heart
Sports and SOB’s
Once upon a time, sports were an escape. All that mattered were the results on the field and how we got to that final score. The personal lives and politics of players, no matter how despicable, were not topics to be covered on the sports pages. Readers turned to the sports pages to forget about… Continue reading Sports and SOB’s
The Endzone View
Since the Eagles home opener is coming up Sunday, I am sharing a memoir piece I wrote a few years ago. It was published in Green Hills Literary Lantern SEAT 9 In the best of times, we see each other six, seven, eight times a year. Nine at most. I look forward to the meetings.… Continue reading The Endzone View
Low Expectations and Diapers
Today’s Eagles game was not a white-knuckle event. Ben Franklin, an adopted Philadelphian who presciently anticipated the psychology of the contemporary Philadelphia sports fan, said, “If you expect the worst, you will never be disappointed.” Perfect. Just about every angst-ridden Eagles’ fan knew, from the moment the schedule came out, that today’s game in Kansas… Continue reading Low Expectations and Diapers
9/11
It seemed blasphemous to be sitting on the beach today, especially since the beautiful weather was a carbon copy of the conditions in New York on 9/11/01. This was the first time I was not sharing the anniversary with the students in my classes. Even if 9/11 fell on a weekend, we’d pause the curriculum… Continue reading 9/11
The Q-View 