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
The Novel View
For six years, I have been working on a novel. The setting is a high school during a prolonged internal lockdown. Prolonged is four hours in the novel. For various reasons, first responders cannot get into the building. Partially, the point of view is from isolated classes stuck in the school who do not have access… Continue reading The Novel View
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
White-Knuckle Viewing
The Eagles kicked off the season in Washington today. The first Sunday of white-knuckle viewing, analogous to having your eyelids taped open while taking a 16-year-old driver on his first trip on the Schuylkill Expressway: a steady diet of “what did you do that fors?” and “oh my Gods” and “watch outs” and “I’m gonna… Continue reading White-Knuckle Viewing
The Q-View 