Happy Birthday To Me. Yep, I let a select few of you down yet again. Yes, compared to the alternative aging another year is more than favorable. But that doesn’t mean it’s a joyride, either. I’m now inexorably in a demographic category that advertisers largely consider irrelevant. Even in the more generous surveys where ten-year … Read more
Hulk Hogan died earlier this week, yet another larger-than-life celebrity who transcended generations based on his earlier success as a performer and his later success as a reality TV personality. But unlike the similarly auspiced Ozzy Osbourne, whom we warmly mused about earlier this week, Hogan was the epitome of an enigma–a word that contrary … Read more
So in yet another June wedding Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez are finally a legally bound couple. Whee. I guess my invitation got lost in the mail. Just as well; I know I couldn’t have afforded the airfare and judging by what my bank account statement is displaying at the moment (a mere ten digits … Read more
I’m a fervent believer that the eye test and the “I” test should supercede any and all written articles or testimonies on just about any subject. What I’ve experienced personally shapes my opinions first and foremost; short of that, if two or more otherwise disconnected people who have had their own personal experience with someone … Read more
It’s been pretty difficult in recent days for me to find something worth smiling about. I’m sorry, but I simply cannot take anything resembling a victory lap about how things went this past weekend. A few thousand neighborhood pep rallies with absolutely no impact on policy or the targets they creatively derided, or the fact … Read more
Another Father’s Day, which for me is now the tenth that is being observed without my participation. And it’s doubly depressing for me since my father’s last cognizant breaths were taken on the last Father’s Day he was technically alive in 2014. While in a rehab center recovering from a second surgery in two months, … Read more
For those of you who have been fortunate enough to have secured a position in your chosen field within the last five years and change (a list regular readers are probably aware doesn’t include moi), show of hands, please? How many of you will testify and swear on a stack of bibles that the reason … Read more
My dad come home one night when I first started high school in an atypically upbeat mood. Apparently he had had a private moment with his union shop steward who he would occasionally tag along with to bust bars for illegally serving minors alcohol and his colleague told him that they had been in meetings … Read more
For me, ever since 1992 Mother’s Day has been Mourners’ Day. My mom passed a mere three weekends after the last time I was able to speak to her and actually wish her well. Not that she always merited such feelings; in a nutshell, we had a complicated relationship and she had a particularly unsatisfying … Read more
MEMO TO: HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV FR: STEVE LEBLANG, MEDIA CONSULTANT/NERVOUS JEW RE: ONE OF A FEW MILLION REQUESTS FOR HELP Your Holiness, Years ago you served the city of Chicago as a respected Cardinal during a trying era–after all, your tenure began after Michael Jordan played his last game for the Bulls. Now, … Read more