I have tried to educate myself about vitamins, but one of my problems is that I am a cynic. Deep in the recesses of my mind (and not so deep, as well), I am not sure that vitamins work. There isn’t a committee of dedicated physicians who rigorously test how taking vitamins will affect each individual. There aren’t any standards at all, that I noticed. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically states on its website, that it “does not have the authority to review dietary supplements.”

While it is true there are no clear standards for vitamins and…

I love New Zealand. I have loved the very idea of New Zealand for almost 40 years now. It started with a movie.

The movie was called Utu. It means “revenge” in Maori. I saw the movie in 1983. It was then I fell in love with New Zealand. I saw it with a friend, Sunu, who was from Samoa. After he saw how I absolutely loved the movie — and the wild, untamed land of lush vegetation, he said, “You are going to be so surprised when you get there, to see white people in New Zealand.” “What?” I…

I know that I just wrote a short list of exercises for creative endeavors, but as I was looking for a book for a friend, I stumbled upon one of my favorite books about writing, John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction. It contains not just some good advice — but pure gold — and the exercises in the end, the ones John Gardner used for his classes, are diamonds. As a writer, my challenges are many, but chief among them is the fact that everything I write sounds like my voice — my style, my flow, my wordplay. …

In thinking of writing today’s blog, I thought to myself, “Self, wouldn’t it be great if I had some little guide, a sort of an exercise I can do?” I went in search of this exercise among the many, many books on writing and creativity that I own, and came out with several ideas from a variety of sources — several sort-of warmup exercises everyone can use to warm up the creative writing muscles (yes, this is a listicle).

1. Set a timer for 5 minutes and write as many words starting with the letter R as you can in…

If you love doing something, you are going to make time for it. It’s really not complicated, it’s not rocket surgery, it’s not even remotely original. So why do I find it so damn difficult?

For one, my ego resists both change and hard work. Change is difficult under the best of circumstances. My nature isn’t exactly a hard-working but rather work-averse. This last part is a mystery to me, since I come from very hard-working folk.

And I want to work hard. I want to become a write-a-holic so badly, I can taste it … and it tastes like…

Wal-Mart is the one of the few places I have to get psyched up for in order to go to. It is not a classy place. But, it is also a place where no one, absolutely no one, cares what you wear. I feel overdressed, even when I am wearing my largest, baggiest dark green sweatpants and a ratty, ancient black t-shirt under my oversized red hooded sweatshirt (now I have Adam Sandler’s “Red Hooded Sweatshirt” on my brain).

That’s where, and how, I found myself yesterday afternoon. Cursing myself under my breath, and under my mask, I reviewed the…

I wish I had a guide map, to help me on the way,

I wish I had a pillow, to lay where I would lay,

I wish I had some will power, to tell me when to stop,

I wish I had a compass, to tell me where to go.

In early, blurry hours, when I can’t sleep a wink,

I worry about Covid, and melting ice caps, too,

I worry about racism, systemic at its root,

I worry about headaches, delivered on my route.

I think about my doggoes, the weather and my kids,

My privilege, my language and…

Take one fat and adorable groundhog in a town of Punxsutawney, call him Phil, take good care of him and the missus, and every February 2 he would emerge from his burrow and predict the weather. This year, 2021, Punxsutawney Phil did indeed see his shadow, and that means that we are to expect six more weeks of winter.

I love this “holiday,” as well as all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds it. You have several grown men who don formal clothing, including top hats, and treat this day as a truly magical rite of winter. It is my…