Birthday Party at Age Eighty – Nothing in the World Like It.
#aging #elderly #octogenarian Eighty! Eight-Zero, brother. Now that’s old. Old as dirt I remember a television program that was on in the 1950s called, “Life Begins at Eighty.” It featured a panel white haired octogenarians so perky that the audience almost believed an ancient truth was embedded in the title of the show. Back then,…
Read MoreLove Letters by A. R. Gurney – Gurney Got It Wrong
#loveletters #argurney #theater Love Letters by A. R. Gurney has been around since 1988. Many stage and screen luminaries have appeared in it, directed it, or been involved in its promotion. Widespread acclaim for the play – a Pulitzer Prize nominee – surely is due, almost exclusively, to the story line. The play follows Andrew…
Read MorePoetry 101 – Making Sense of Modern Poetry
#poetry #literary #robertfrost #dylanthomas At one time, in order for a composition to be considered poetry, it needed to be rhymed and presented with a consistent cadence. Robert Frost’s “Stopping by the Wood on a Snowy Evening” is a fine example. Whose woods these are I…
Read MoreThe Writer’s Crucible by Phillip Kenney – An Extraordinary Guide to the Writing Life
#writing #Kenney #creativity #psychology Phillip Kenney knows writing. Radiance, 2013, his courageous first novel is brilliant in its challenges to the conventional. Kenney, the writer, is also a psychotherapist with more than three decades of experience. He brings the insights and wisdom of his profession to bear in all his work but especially in his…
Read MoreAgeism – Getting Older Ain’t for Sissies Yet Our Humor Belittles Elders
#ageing #ageism #elderly Ageism is something many don’t recognize today as a concern worthy of their time. A reader recently sent me a series of cartoons about elderly people. Each panel poked fun at the commonplace inconveniences or afflictions of old age; i.e. incontinence, forgetfulness, general decrepitude, impotence, diminished libido, ineptitude, etc. The subjects were depicted…
Read MoreSurvival in an Indifferent Universe
#cancer #grief #disaster #god #tragedy My mother, my sister-in-law, my best friend, and my ex-wife died of cancer. Universe Cancer is evil. Like anything else, it wants to thrive. Growth, normally, is regarded as a good. Cancer is uncontrolled growth. It thrives by destroying the cells that support life, love, and thought. Nothing continues to…
Read MoreAnesthesia Recovery Often Stressful
#anesthesia #oxycodone #overdose Anesthesia for major surgery is awesome stuff. Researchers are not entirely sure how it works. Scientific American had the best article I could find. It is worth a read. One thing is sure, anesthesia for major surgery works. The stuff puts you under big time. It’s not like sleep, Hamlet. There is…
Read MoreFinal Day by Forstchen Superficial and Filled with Gimmicks
Post-apocalypse America. China occupies all territory west of the Mississippi except for the lands Mexico reclaims it lost in the Southwest. Eastern United States is in chaos. Metropolitan areas are radioactive wastelands or havens for marauders armed with military weapons to plunder villages where refugees seek survival. In his novel, The Final Day, author William…
Read MoreJames Grippando’s Novella “The Penny Jumper” – Trading Stock at Lightspeed
#highfrequencytrrading $daytrading #stockmarket thepennyjumper #daytrading #pennystock Time is money, but what is the price tag that comes with it. Bestselling author James Grippando sets the amount at about 160 million every trading day on Wall Street. That’s for a single millisecond or .001 seconds. Why so much? Simple. High frequency traders on the world’s…
Read MoreForgiving An Unfaithful Partner Ambivalence Takes Over
#divorce #betrayal #infidelity #marriagecounselling #brokenfamily Truth in the therapist’s office is an elusive thing. I could go all week convinced that I no longer wanted to return to my marriage. I missed my children very much. But every time I checked in with them they were doing fine. They were so accustomed to having me…
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