Subway Diary # 2: The Underground Banjo Player

Subway Diary # 2: The Underground Banjo Player

This is the second in a series of Subway Diary entries: snapshots of life’s noteworthy experiences underground in NYC. The events described here took place in late January as I zig-zagged my way around Manhattan on crowded subways before COVID-19 restricted my ability...
Subway Diary #1

Subway Diary #1

A lot of people these days bitch about our New York City subways–with reason. The MTA’s finger-in the-dike campaign to repair our antique system continually scrambles the system and peoples’ lives: They’re late for work; they can’t get home when they’re weary...
Contemplating the Penultimate Chapter

Contemplating the Penultimate Chapter

I have a relatively small working vocabulary, and this is probably the first time in my seventy years that I’ve used the word “penultimate.” Google helped me spell it. But I couldn’t think of a better way to describe what’s occasionally been on my mind lately as I’ve...
Playing the Covid Odds

Playing the Covid Odds

We’re all shooting craps against Covid these days–playing the odds as we feel our way to deciding what to do (and not to do), and struggle to get back to some semblance of life as we knew it without taking dumb risks. Which of the many longed-for activities...