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Blog

If it doesn’t fit, it’s probably a blog post.

Blog Post: The Handwritten Journal

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I’m not sure why I started writing the handwritten journal but it has taken on a life of its own. I write in it nearly every day now. As a lonely expatriate I get a feeling of anonymous connection by putting pages of the handwritten journal on the Internet. Then I see you at a party and you tell me you read it. Which is unlikely since I live in Italy. Still, I think about the possibility...

Blog Post: Marooned in Miami

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This time for my flight to Paris to meet my wife Norma I did everything perfectly. For the 9pm flight on Caribes airline — FrenchBee — I arrived at Miami airport at 4pm. It just seemed prudent. I did all the things you do, I checked my one bag electronically at the kiosk, I managed to secure a much better seat for an extra $20, I managed to separate fact from fiction regarding the...

Generic Holiday Blog Post: It was like this in 2022 and it’s pretty much the same in 2023!

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We’ll be in Italy of course because we live there. That’s always weird but less weird every year and this’ll be Year Seven EIGHT! Our first year living in Italy we went to Venice for Christmas and got ripped off at some supposedly great restaurant. C’est la vie, live and learn. This year we local americani will have Thanksgiving dinner with some likewise Americans etc. at...

Kafka’s Olympic gold medal, Prospero the Nigerian’s cheap flashlights, Freud’s weirdness, Hamlet’s dilemma, etc.

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Last week I was sitting in the yard playing the guitar enjoying my freedom when I put down the guitar and picked up the London Review of Books and chanced upon that same Hamlet quote from last week’s agonized sermon on the disgustingness of sex. Cheesily teased on the cover as “Adam Phillips on FOMO” but more accurately titled inside as “On Being Left Out,” the...

Favorite Italian Punk Bands! Musicarelli, Tuscan Geology and More!

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Favorite Italian punk band from Arezzo: Osaka Flu Favorite piece about Tuscan geology: The Life of a Tuscan Wall Favorite funny Outdoor Dining in the Pandemic video This Week’s Favorite Italian News in English web site: TheLocal.it Favorite Italian Bob Dylan Scholar: Alex Falzon, author of Bob Dylan: Tu Sei quel che sogni (You are what you dream])    Favorite 60s music movie genre: I love...

Voting Rights, Democracy, Hope, Optimism, and the “Arc of the Moral Universe”

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This morning, Monday morning, March 29, 2021, I woke up in Castiglion Fiorentino as usual and was still thinking about a column I published on Salon.com just over fifteen years ago titled, “What’s the Best Method for a Painless Suicide?”. I still to this day receive an occasional letter about that column, both from people who find solace in it and people who call me mean names...

Check this out, folks! The Psychedelic Madness of Covid-19: A Personal Journey

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Dear Reader, I wrote “The Psychedelic Madness of Covid-19” for David Talbot, founder of Salon.com, and I think it’s the best piece I’ve written about my recovery from Covid-19. Read and enjoy! The podcast started out as an honest homage to David Talbot, but ended up being all about me, me, me! How I ended up working at Salon.com, how I learned everything I needed to know...

The Massage Parlor Murders: What can you do?

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This is not an advice column. This is commentary. Robert Aaron Long, 21 years old, of  Woodstock, Georgia, was arrested Tuesday in the murders of eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent working in massage parlors. Initial media reports indicated that he claimed he did it because he was a sex addict. Sex addiction is not a trivial matter. But right now his claim feels like a...

Learning from Covid-19 Delirium: How I went Crazy in the ICU and Lived to Write About it

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Hi Folks! Wow, was I insane! This week’s podcast dives deep into the fantastical delirium I experienced in the intensive care unit of San Donato hospital in Arezzo, Italy. I’ll be publishing a longer prose version soon and will let you know when that is available. Also, this is the January 12, 2021 Smithsonian Magazine article I mention at about 1:20 into the podcast. But for now...

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