The Scream in My Heart–from And Now This

Chimps are funny. When I was a kid there was a television commercial for Red Rose Tea. Four chimps, dressed in plaid jackets and black slacks, playing swing music at a club called The Savory Ritz. On stage there was piano chimp, trombone chimp, and string bass and drummer chimp.  Also, in the foreground, lady…More

Toothpicks–walking, Uncle Buck, an old song

“Did you bring a flashlight?” Tizi asks. We’re setting out on our morning walk. It’s January, cold and dark. The snow that fell a few days ago has all melted, leaving puddles in the depressions in the asphalt pavement. She’s wearing her bright yellow Flectson vest over her many layers. A passing car will light…More

Sing It–the music, the spaghetti

I should take delivery of a ukelele today. That’s a fun word to write.  Try it. Ukelele. The instrument is coming in the mail. It’s been twenty years since I played the guitar. My fingers have grown soft and lost their muscle tone. I have muscle memory of chords and songs and licks, but when…More

The Summer of 1964–wheels, young love, tiny transgression

A few years after he went to New York and started his work in advertising, my son came home for a weekend visit with a skateboard under his arm. He said he rode it to work. Over the next day or two, he stepped outside the house a couple times and rolled around the neighborhood…More

Sing It–but keep it to yourself

Since the beginning of Covid time, four or five days a week we take this walk. And every morning a song visits me, unbidden.   This morning it’s the theme from “The Odd Couple.” Where did that come from?  Yesterday it was “I Think I’m Going Out of My Head,” which, for sentimental reasons, I was…More

Margaritas, Cold Sweat, and Dante

Dante wrote his long poem for Beatrice Portinari (that’s Bay-ah-TREE-chay) “Rojo,” my wife says to me one morning. We’re in the car on the way to the gym. We work out in the basement of the township senior center. Treadmills, ellipticals, exercise bicycles, a couple rowing machines—there’s always a few of these not in use.…More