As I walked away from the recycling bin in our community, I pondered the sign that had recently been placed on the nearby fence. It advised that the recycling area was under twenty-four hour camera surveillance and enumerated the permitted and prohibited disposals. I considered who put up the sign and the cameras. Who looked at the tapes? I answered myself immediately — “They”. The perennial and pervasive…. “They”. They make the rules. They impact our lives. O...

Like Nancy - see her blog this past Tuesday - I value tradition. And so it was that Flo and I had dinner the other evening at LeCoucou to celebrate our anniversary. In addition to a phenomenal meal in a relaxed causal, albeit upscale place, we reminisced about how, a few years ago, we shut our phones to enjoy our dinner. When we turned the phones back on, a plethora of text messages greeted us with the news that a grandchild had been born while we dined. We rushed out t...

Today is Valentine's Day.  It is the first anniversary of the Parkland shootings.  Today is a day of many feelings.  It is a day of expressing love.  Unfortunately, today is also a day to remember how hate can destroy love.   May love conquer hate today and always- Happy Valentine's Day. ...

Eating jelly donuts is one of the customs that makes Hanukah what it is. My friend related the following story. Bob was seeing some people for the lighting of the first candle. He thought it would be nice to bring donuts. He called and ordered two dozen from the bakery and would pick them up on the way. With a credit card, it was done. A few hours later, he picked up the donuts. Two boxes were waiting with the charge slip attached. The charge was extravagantly-more than he...

Independence Day is one of those few holidays that will always be celebrated on the precise day of its origin —— July 4th. No changes to Monday for the convenience of a long weekend. Most years, however, Independence Day provides a long holiday weekend — either three or four days — to begin Summer. But, by my unscientific calculations, every six years or so (depending on leap years) Independence Day falls on a Wednesday as it did yesterday. And when Independence Day falls...

On this day, there are so many things to be thankful for.... As I sit at our Thanksgiving table, surrounded by family, I expect that my thoughts of thanks will focus on two things: First, having just survived the annual Thanksgiving basketball game, and Second, the two newest members of our family who are celebrating their first Thanksgivng this year. May we all survive many furture basketball games and May our newest family members enjoy many, many Thanksgivings to come.   H...

First, I was just always around to see my Father.   Then I was taken to see my Father. I was then reminded to see my Father. I then remembered to see him on my own. I then looked forward to seeing my Father. I became a Father and they came to see me. And now they are fathers and ...... ...

Last Sunday, I attended the annual Commemoration of the Holocaust at Temple Emanu-El in New York. I watched, as I have for so many years, my Mother light a memorial candle with other survivors. We remembered. During the ceremony, survivors were honored and as I listened to their stories, a theme resonated. The majority recounted how they fled and crossed borders or were hidden by those who risked their lives in doing so. And I wondered again as I so often have wondered ...

I have often written about tradition and I very proudly relate yet one more story. At the Passover Seder (the traditional meal at which the story of the exodus from Egypt is retold), we eat bitter herbs (to remember the bitterness of slavery). For the bitter herbs, my family uses raw horseradish. I remember my father grating the large horseradish root and the pungent, tear-producing, fumes. A task that I now endure as I prepare for the holiday. The burn of the swallowed b...

Its March 30th and I would be remiss to not take this opportunity to wish Fred a very happy birthday. So, Fred, my friend, my best wishes for a Happy Birthday. I still have that early memory--perhaps one of the first times we met -- of you running over the hill of the cross-country course in back of Schreiber High School. It was quite a while ago and yet "we all still look the same". There have been many uphills and downhills since then and the run has been great....and the...