THOUGHTS ON CLEOPATRA’S SALAD DAYS On October 3, Julian Slade died. Slade is the man who wrote the music for “Salad Days,” a show which began in the 1950s and was the longest running musical in England until Oliver. I saw the production in London in the early 1960s and &

THOUGHTS ON TRUST Last week, I celebrated a good medical checkup with a trip to the Mall for a soft yogurt. The facility has a large ice rink and as I sat beside it, I noticed 5 children between the ages of 5 and 6 being given their first skating lessons. What courage these youngsters

MORE HALLOWEEN THOUGHTS I watched an exposé on a woman spiritualist a few days ago which didn’t amount to much. The TV personality debunked her gift by pointing out her questions drew more information from her subjects than she returned. What’s more her readings were non-specific

This discussion of “Heart Land” appears on Portland-area cable beginning Monday, October 18, 2010. (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

This interview with Dr. Veronica Asagui on “Gothic Spring” can be seen on Portland-area cable beginning Monday, October 18, 2010. (Source: http://www.youtube.com/)

TALKING BACK TO THE GENIUS, PHILLIP ROTH I felt as if an arrow had pierced my heart when I read an interview on Phillip Roth in the November edition of “Vanity Fair.”  His new book, “Nemesis” is out this year and he was discussing it and the fate of literature

THOUGHTS OF EDITORS AND FRIENDSHIPS I’ve just finished the fifth draft of my fourth novel, “The Necromancer.”  I think I like it, but I’m not certain whether I’ve done what I intended  because I’ve had my nose pressed hard against the computer for the last several months

 A LESSON IN BUBBLES Saturday, it was raining when I left for my walk in the park, neither a gentle rain nor a downpour. The drops were hard enough to form bubbles in the puddles and I stood for a while watching them expand then burst and form again in what seemed a never ending patt

DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON Last week, I got the scare of my life. A friend, back from a wine tour of France, sent me an e-mail saying he needed a liver transplant. I gasped. He was so much younger than I, how was that possible? I called him at his home at once, though the hour was unseeml

SHORT TERM VERSUS LONG TERM INTERESTS A friend of mine brought a book with her when we met for coffee, “The Geography of Bliss”  by Eric Weiner. She was impressed by it and read a passage to me, an aphorism the author discovered while traveling in Bhutan: “When the