Selflessness, Humanity, or just plain Heroism, it surrounds us everyday and I look forward to acknowledging more and more. Edited from the NY Times(by David Wolpe,the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles): In 1939 Chiune Sugihara was sent to Lithuania, where he ran the consulate. There he was soon confronted with Jews fleeing from German-occupied Poland.   Three times Sugihara cabled his embassy asking for permission to issue visas to the refugees. The cable from K. Tanaka ...

  I have to admit I’m intrigued.     There are so many “meal in the box” services popping up. To me, one looks better than the next. The ingredients look fresh and to make it even more appealing, there would be absolutely no need for me to step foot into a supermarket.     Anyone out there had an experience using one of these services? Is it something you recommend? ...

  I have to admit I’m intrigued.     There are so many “meal in the box” services popping up. To me, one looks better than the next. The ingredients look fresh and to make it even more appealing, there would be absolutely no need for me to step foot into a supermarket.     Anyone out there had an experience using one of these services? Is it something you recommend? ...

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’m watching my husband prepare meat and fish for a bar-b-que. All four of our children are coming for dinner with their significant others.   When the kids were young, Sunday dinner was always a must; whether we were cooking dinner or bringing in food. No matter what the kids had to do, reports, homework etc., it all had to be put away for Sunday dinner. In a house with four kids and four different schedules, Sunday dinner was the time that we coul...

After basketball I chatted with Joe who plays (well but) intermittently of late about Shelly’s plans for me. He teased – perhaps he meant it – that I’d be spending hours putting together a chaise she purchased and arrived earlier this week – in three boxes. Yesterday morning before ball, Shelly started to open the boxes. I joined in. I suggested spreading a blanket over the wood floor in what once Jonathan enjoyed as his room. We took all the components apart, out of the boxe...

On the the first day of legal cannabis sales across Canada, a 9 year old girl, Elina Childs, set up outside a marijuana shop to take advantage of the foot traffic.   The girl sold all 30 boxes of cookies she brought in under 45 minutes. "It amazed me how quickly they went," Elina's Father said. "Even people in cars driving on the avenue there would stop and roll down their window and ask for cookies." He said the experience was educational for Elina.   Nothing like selling t...

Having reached a venerable age, yet aspiring to be Forever Young, one notices many not so subtle changes. One of the most obvious is having someone get up and offer a subway seat.  Another is receiving courteous “Sir” greetings. Some would say “It’s all good” and that I earned it. Nonetheless, there is an invidious flip side.  Too often, almost every time we are being seated in a restaurant, we are traveled to a far corner.   In actuality I don’t mind the out of the traffic a...

The day as planned was not atypical for me; I boarded the bus for the trip into Manhattan with my art group for our museum visit.  Most of the women would then get back on the bus to return to Long Island mid-afternoon, but I planned to see another exhibit at another museum before going crosstown (Uber) to meet Ben for dinner near Lincoln Center where we would then see a performance by a group of Tibetan Monks as part of the White Light Festival.....a perfect day!   But then,...

None of us can escape it, but a little warning might be nice... From Tonic 9/25/18(edited for space): Of the many small humiliations heaped on a young oncologist in his final year of fellowship, perhaps this one carried the oddest bite: A 2-year-old black-and-white cat named Oscar was apparently better than most doctors at predicting when a terminally ill patient was about to die. The story appeared, astonishingly, in The New England Journal of Medicine in the summer of 2007...

  Well, maybe not really breaking news.     I cannot take credit for this thought but I have to say it stuck with me. A Sunday morning news commentator posited the following observation which resonated with me.     Do you remember the feeling that came along with that ominous, but extraordinarily rare, announcement of “Breaking News”? I do. It was that feeling that said stand up and pay attention because something big had just happened; something out of the ordinary, some...

  Well, maybe not really breaking news.     I cannot take credit for this thought but I have to say it stuck with me. A Sunday morning news commentator posited the following observation which resonated with me.     Do you remember the feeling that came along with that ominous, but extraordinarily rare, announcement of “Breaking News”? I do. It was that feeling that said stand up and pay attention because something big had just happened; something out of the ordinary, some...

  I spent all of last week in Family Court engaged in a particularly difficult custody trial. As the name implies, Family Court involves family disputes, custody, child support, and neglect and abuse proceedings. Most proceedings in Family Court-other than adoptions-are generally emotional gut wrenching cases.     During a break in my trial, I was sitting in the hallway working on testimony. I paused to look up for a moment and, sitting across from me I saw a woman crying....

I decided to play a playlist on our drive to a show last night.  I bring up my iTunes. Its not there.  Odd I thought. I’ll deal with it later.  I use Waze to help navigate different traffic situations, in part for the headsup, as I know my way around the City and then some.  My iPhone speaker is not functioning correctly with the otherwise helpful App so playing it through the car stereo makes it clearer; thus the need to play something in iTunes.  I selected another playlist...

Waking up in the dark is my first sign that the seasons are changing. I'm not a big fan. It just seems natural that we should wake up with the sun. Light tells your body it's time to wake up.   To combat that there are daylight simulation alarm clocks that begin with a soft glow and ramp up to full brightness by your wake-up time. Imitating a sunrise in your bedroom can either positively affect the way your body responds to waking up or a royal pain in the butt.   I rarely us...

Joanne and I are not world travelers, nevertheless, in an adventurous moment we decided we wanted to travel to Italy with our friends Ennid and David Berger and we planned a year ahead and decided upon Sorrento, Italy.  Laney Sachs and her company Ortensia Blu Italian Adventures helped us find a beautiful cliff side hotel in Sorrento, over looking fabled Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples (pictured).  What’s more, she helped us plan excursions to Pompeii, Capri and the Ama...