Walpole Tailors

I drove my son to Trader Joe’s late this afternoon, through the windy northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia. We laboriously crossed the Schuylkill on the elegant but congested Green Lane Bridge, then wended through the glorious houses of the region that…

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The Murder Game

In one of our last political discussions, my father was trying to persuade me that Putin was miscast as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. He had a penchant for contrarianism, especially when it comes to trusting the American perspective…

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Concussion Protocol

On Wednesday morning, I got up with Graham and was helping him acclimate to his day. I usually tend to him first thing on days I’m not going into the office and it’s some of my favorite time with him.…

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Sifting Rocks in the Hot Sun

About a year, maybe less, before it was sold to us, our backyard underwent an overhaul. Much of the apparently very expensive lawn was torn out and replaced with rocks. But crucially, not all of it. The rocks were a…

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Fifteen Nails

My literary hero Ray Bradbury famously adorned his writing desk and the surrounding office with endless piles of books, toys, tchotchkes, and papers, enough to almost make me feel like my natural inclinations aren’t so broken for an aspiring writer.…

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Old Friends

Old friends old friends sat on their park bench like bookends A newspaper blown through the grass falls on the round toes of the high shoes of the old friends … Can you imagine us years from today Sharing a…

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Mailing it in

Yesterday, I sent some mail that was long overdue. How overdue was it? One of the two envelopes I mailed contained correspondence I had first attempted to fax in early May. The documentation in question was an authorization for me…

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Get Organized

One of the many challenging things about living with me, for the few who’ve made the attempt, is that I am something of a packrat. Hoarder is the term of art these days, although in its true sense, this term…

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That Escalated Quickly

Today, I took my son on an escalator and broke down. To be clear, the escalator didn’t break down. I did. We were at the Adventure Aquarium in Camden, where we’re members, and he’d just seen the hippos and done…

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Pulling Hen’s Teeth

I called my dental insurance today and officially designated my chosen dental provider as my dental provider. It wasn’t a big thing, but it was a thing I needed to do and I did it today. The need arose because…

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