The Optimist

I never used to hold the remote while watching TV. A lot of people I know use the remote to avoid commercials, but not me. Maybe it’s because my two kids work in advertising, or maybe because I don’t want… Continue Reading →

I don’t golf. Never touched a club. But I love watching golf on TV.Especially The Masters.I get excited when I see the first promos for The Masters. Sometimes they come as early as during the Super Bowl. The Masters typically… Continue Reading →

In my early 20s I became too cool to vote and therefore not cool at all.Thank God that faze passed before my father, a Bronze Star winner in World War II with two brothers who were killed in the European… Continue Reading →

How many young Americans have no idea where Afghanistan is?How many could not find Israel on a globe?Or Paris?Or even London?How many do not know England is an island?Or have at least a rough idea where the city of St.… Continue Reading →

“There’s no crying in baseball,” Tom Hanks said as the character Jimmy Dugan in the movie “A League of Their Own.”But he was wrong.Or maybe he just forgot what it was like to be a kid.The first World Series I… Continue Reading →

I’ve never been anything close to an investigative reporter. But if the situation called for it – as it did once, if memory serves – I was more than up to the journalistic task.My hour of glory came to mind… Continue Reading →

I emailed feedback on a writing assignment my student Nicole Piccoletti submitted and told her I was going to borrow something she wrote and use it in a blog.I also told her I would give her credit. Which, if you… Continue Reading →

Half of the American people have never read a newspaper. Half never voted for president. One hopes it is the same half.– Gore Vidal I know when it happened, when I became a newspaper junkie.My parents did not have a… Continue Reading →

I still get excited when Esquire magazine appears in my mailbox each month, but I often wonder why.I am so far removed from pop culture, I rarely relate to the Esquire articles these days. But I still relate to the… Continue Reading →

Not all things are better with science.Take baseball.It used to be such a simple, beautiful game.It’s always been said baseball is a game of statistics and that’s true. Hitters were always measured by three things: batting average, home runs, and… Continue Reading →