Last fall, I accompanied my son on a hike with his Cub Scout pack in the woods of the Arcadia Management Area. Boys in blue and tan uniforms led the way while parents followed and observed from close behind. The night before, my son and I flipped through his Cub Scout Bear Handbook for info […]
Dear C; I’ve known Steve for about four years. We’ve just been friends, but there has always been a certain chemistry between us that never quite came to the surface. Part of it is me. I was sexually abused as a kid and when I become intimately involved with a man, I can become uncomfortably vulnerable. […]
“Baby Got Back” was a mouth dropper when it first hit the airwaves, but today it is the anthem for voluptuous women everywhere. No longer are they fat-shamed; in fact, thanks in no small part to Kim K, Iggy Azalea and Nicki Minaj, big booties have now become the height of fashion for mainstream America. […]
Memorial Day is more than just a holiday that unofficially marks the beginning of summer. There is a deep meaning to this day, which became an official holiday in 1971, though its origins date back to the Civil War, and it is a holiday that is for mourning and reflecting, not celebrating. Memorial Day […]
Dear C; I almost didn’t notice the small black dot under the top rim of Caitlin’s ear until she rubbed at it and said, “My ear feels funny!” I bent down to look and nearly shrieked – it was one of those nasty ticks, and it must have been there for at least a day […]
Two ticks, one in Rhode Island, the other in Central India, injected and infected me with the most vicious of microbial beasts. “What’s the probability of that?” you might ask. How could two ticks, nearly 8,000 miles apart, find me so irresistible? Is it the spicy flavor of my Sicilian blood from too much puttanesca? […]
The use of antidepressants (ADs) in this country rose more than 400% between 1990 and 2008, then increased by another 65% between 1999 and 2014. Why? Many argue that today’s skyrocketing numbers are due to previous undertreatment of depression, while others blame profiteering by the pharmaceutical industry. Another camp sees it as a generalized symptom of […]
Dear C; When his wife divorced him, my brother, Tom, was devastated. She moved to another state and he moved into a rented room. Then he had a run of bad lack that seemed due to severe depression. and got evicted for non-payment. Tom and I have always been close and I needed help with […]
When a representative from the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) asked the audience how we’d gotten ourselves to the clean transportation listening session, most people raised their hands to “driving here alone in a car.” Including me. The meeting was convened to help RIDOT, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management and the Office […]
In as big a sign of spring as the crocuses, baseball is back in Rhode Island and the Pawtucket Red Sox are underway for the 2018 season. The PawSox have served as a minor league baseball team for the Boston Red Sox since 1970, playing all 48 seasons at McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket. McCoy has […]