I'm in Chicago for my niece's wedding tonight. Should be a great time. But that's not what this blog is about. Chicago is a great city. Really clean, lots of good restaurants and places of interest. We checked into the Hyatt Place, a beautiful hotel, in the middle of the city and found our room. I didn't notice it then but when I got ready for be …
Following up on last Friday's Three Stages of Life blog, I was pleased to learn that, by one standard of measurement, all my hard work seems to have paid off. I was reading last week's Science Times and there was an article about Senior Olympians who had been tested for their "fitness age". The article referenced a web site: worldfitnesslevel.org. …
I was walking up the aisle from my front row seat at intermission of “Shows for Days” at the Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center; “Ben, your shirt is open.” (Actually, I was wearing a T shirt under an open shirt.) I looked around and when I focused on Gothamite Richard Fromewick seated several rows up the aisle, I replied that I was thankful that …
Today, Wed. July 15, is my 61st birthday. A decade older than Roger Maris when he left this mortal coil. I am thrilled to be alive and only half way through. 1954 -– First flight of the Boeing 367-80, prototype for both the Boeing 707 and C-135 series. A good day for new flyers. I share my day with other artistic and creative folk: Rembrandt, Cleme …
Friday night we attended a free concert in our town park with friends -- a Bee Gees tribute band. They were great and I sang out loud. (No comments please on my choice of music. I had my fill of that from my children all weekend long.) Saturday night we had dinner with friends at a restaurant in Bayville literally on the beach. We sat at a tab …
We discussed an interesting topic over the dinner table this weekend, overposters. You know the type; you read their Facebook status and cringe from the amount of personal information they’ve shared. Recent posts that seemed, to me, to contain too much personal information included, “Going to take a bubble bath, hoping hubby surprises me” and “Inc …
I have been riding alone so far this summer, until I caught up with a fellow while riding on Route 22 yesterday by the Kensico Dam. As I started to pass him he asked me where I was headed. That started a conversation that lasted another fifteen miles as we rode in tandem until we split off. We kept the same pace along the route until we came to t …
Did you know that humans and chimps share a genetic mutation that helps them break down alcohol? Scientists say that the benefits of such an expanded diet may have even led evolution to favor an attraction to alcohol. Well apparently Chimps have used this expanded diet by learning to fold or crumple leaves inside their mouths to produce a drinkin …
Over my many years I have learned that there are three stages in life: Youth, Middle Age and "You Look Good!"I'm not saying that I look good, but I have survived the first two stages and work hard every day living right to earn the third accolade. If anyone is interested in the details feel free to let me know. :)
In case you haven't seen this yet, someone tried to charge his cellphone on stage at a performance of “Hand to God” on Broadway. Details are unclear, but apparently a man in the audience jumped onto the stage to plug his cellphone into one of the electrical outlets on the set. The only problem was that the outlet was a prop in the scenery -- n …
Since I am in love with my name, I will continue this weeks Name theme. I am the youngest of 4. The oldest, my sister, was named for my Mother and her mother, Sue Brent, we've always called her Brent. My brothers were named for my father, the older one - my ex-brother (but thats another story), John Albert - and the younger brother named for my gra …
Names are funny things. We don’t pick our own – our parents give them to us at a time before we have even met. How do they know if our names will fit us for an entire lifetime? That is kind of a long time. When we picked our daughter’s name (Jaclyn), we always assumed that she would be called Jacqui for short. That was not her plan, at least u …
A recent article in The New York Times piqued my interest. It discussed the trend of many young women to keep their maiden name when marrying. Their desire to keep their name was not so much a political statement, the author wrote, but a practical one. Many of the women interviewed stated that were choosing to keep their name so that it would be ea …
I was not sure this morning if I wanted to write about my beach umbrella, or Thomas Jefferson. As it is July 4th weekend, let's go with Jefferson. I have never been a huge Jefferson fan. It started when I went to Benjamin Franklin Junior High. The town's othe junior high school, and our rival, was Thomas Jefferson. So being anti-Jefferson was in …
I rarely get to write a blog on a holiday since very few holidays fall on a Saturday. However, today is one of those special days. HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!Our nation celebrates with red, white and blue paraphenalia, fireworks, sales at stores and, of course, barbeques. There is a deeper meaning beyond all this consumerism....patriotism. What cause …
