I was invited to address the students at SUNY-Farmingdale this month, courtesy of Dr. Laurie Rozakis, who just happens to be one of my oldest and dearest friends. She figured that as a fellow educator and longtime writer, I might have interesting things to say. I fortunately had the ability to schedule the talk to […]
I used to do a lot of theater, finding it a fun outlet for my energy. My best performance may have been back in 9th grade when I was a killer Evil Eye Fleagle in Jericho Junior High’s production of Li’l Abner. My last production was a year later in the high school’s One Act […]
No, I’m not dead. Just very, very busy.For most of November, my free time has been sucked up by school or family matters. With four straight days off and a few things settled, I intend on catching up and resuming more or less regular posting here.In short, it’s been a very busy period. First, my […]
Well, that wasn’t as bad as I expected.Last night was the RTM meeting when the public got a chance to weigh in on the budget. As in the past, no one came to debate any item on the town side. Clearly, no one cares one way or the other until their tax bill arrives. The […]
Now that most of the Star Trek hoopla has died down, I wanted to comment on the fourth and final meeting of the mystery book group.We discussed P.D. James’ An Inconvenient Job for a Woman, which was written in 1972 and introduced readers to her character, Cordelia Gray. Interestingly, I found the writing good, the […]
Our first quarter ended on Friday and I am only now recovering from an exhausting final week. Starting the previous Friday, the moment the bell rang at 2:05, I was inundated with students asking to check their grades, deliver overdue work, seek extra credit opportunities, or plead their cases. Despite bending my no late work […]
I’m not writing as much about being a teacher this year as last; largely because I haven’t had a lot of time nor do I have a lot of angst to work through.I can’t begin to describe the difference between Year One and Year Two. Not every single thing I do is new and I […]
I am teaching kids ranging from 14-17 and as of today, I am now married more than twice their ages. Today, Deb and I celebrate our 34th anniversary.In the wake of Kate’s recent marriage, it has given me occasion to pause and reflect about the journey we’ve been on. We started at 22, less than […]
In this small world of ours, it’s amazing how things come together. I had cut and pasted the Variety story about Star Trek and posted it to one of the newsgroups I participate with. Jackie Bundy, the moderator and all-around swell gal, dropped me a note thanking me for doing it while she was inundated […]
One of the things that really irked me while I was working at DC Comics was when an artist needed a collection of villains for some story and rather than check to see which ones were available, he’d merely thumb through his set of Who’s Who and cherry-pick whoever he wanted to draw. The editors […]