A Life Lived Backwards: One Man's Life

“I think “Intimate Conversations” works well in the way I wrote it in my own vernacular and style in plain words where you don’t have to go the dictionary to understand what I’m saying. Several people have said to me they feel like they’re looking over my shoulder as I talk to these musicians. I do not look at these as conversations as interviews. We are conversing. It is a give and take, but not...

“I think “Intimate Conversations” works well in the way I wrote it in my own vernacular and style in plain words where you don’t have to go the dictionary to understand what I’m saying. Several people have said to me they feel like they’re looking over my shoulder as I talk to these musicians. I do not look at these as conversations as interviews. We are conversing. It is a give and take, but not...

“I think “Intimate Conversations” works well in the way I wrote it in my own vernacular and style in plain words where you don’t have to go the dictionary to understand what I’m saying. Several people have said to me they feel like they’re looking over my shoulder as I talk to these musicians. I do not look at these as conversations as interviews. We are conversing. It is a give and take, but not...

The incredible twenty-four-year pitching career of Roger Clemens in which he won 354 games, 163 of them after Red Sox GM Dan Duquette allowed him to depart Boston, intoning that Roger was “in the twilight” of his career, may seem an odd place to begin this note. Actually, it isn’t, because belief in one’s self at any age is the key to living long and accomplishing much. But it is also true that on...

Not an easy task, especially when it’s one about classical music. Even if it contains stories drawn from face-to-face meetings with over twenty world class musical figures. I had high hopes submitting the manuscript to several major publishers and agents. Some were very admiring, but none said yes. All said the economics were unfavorable. What to do? The title I had chosen for the book is “Intimat...

Boston fandom was understandably excited about the return of Mookie Betts to Fenway Park in late August, 2023, almost four years after his untimely and hurtful trade to the LA Dodgers. Did Mookie disappoint on that first visit back? Did Mookie ever disappoint? No and No. Mookie undermined the Red Sox with his batting and fielding at two positions in that memorable series. On this podcast Jordan Ri...

As an historian, I was intrigued to receive a letter from the Wellfleet Historical Society that they planned to undertake an oral history project, to be converted and bound into text, in the Summer of 2023, to gather its fascinating history. I volunteered my services, one thing led to another, and in July I sat opposite the low key and lovely Robin Burns, one of the Directors of the WHS, receiving...

As said, I had some time when getting a trade publisher proved problematical. Then illustrator and friend, Holly Sullo, advised me that as the owner of the copyright to “Intimate Conversations,” I could publish that book privately without undercutting my chances of obtaining a publisher later because there was no agent, and no middleman. I had not been aware of that. Why not do that? So, I set my...

I may have surprised my esteemed collaborator, Jordan Rich, when he opened this podcast with the question,” Where do you think mankind is headed?” I answered, “I think we are headed for the destruction of mankind.” That is a view I have held since the bomb was unleashed on Japan, a view that seems quite contrary to my optimistic and fun-loving persona, but there it is, now reinforced by the pletho...

There is no question that the really good movies hold a mirror up to ourselves, just as do good operas like Mozart’s astounding, “The Marriage of Figaro.” Early on movie production artists realized how big a role music, and all the arts, play in those fascinating movies. Cinema is a very important part of our culture. There is a reason actors become presidents, like Ronald Reagan, senators like Al...

One of the great features of growing older is the fun and interest of being close friends with people of whom we never tire, with whom the conversation always waxes. Such folks inspire us to talk openly, honestly, and helpfully about old age itself. Such a person is my podcast partner, Jordan Rich, who although a generation younger, has a deep understanding of human nature and of my own persona. T...

Everybody knows Covid changed the pattern of our lives. So too have the crevices now cracking the political landscape of our country. Neighbors used to be friends, adults mixing with kids, young and old mixing with each other. Does that closeness still exist as it did before? Has that difference had an effect on our lives? Perhaps stats cannot answer those questions as well as one’s own experience...

Quite a claim, but true. Aren’t zillions of folk drawn to this great city by its multiplicity of attractions from the historicity of its appearance to its institutions of education, health care, biotechnology, business, finance, transport, manufacturing, tourism, finance and insurance, and hardly least, its music, not to mention its storied sports franchises, the Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, and Br...

Every once in a while, I like to turn the tables and interview the interviewer on this podcast series. So I did when I interviewed Jordan Rich on depression, and here we are again on friendship, another universal subject. Naturally Shakespeare had it right when he opined in 1 Henry VI that, “Thy friendship makes us fresh, and begets new courage in our breasts.” I would not now be a podcaster had n...

That is the title of a course I’m teaching this Summer at the iconic Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill under the guidance of longtime Director, the able Cherie Mittenthal. First a word about timeless Truro, situated on Cape Cod just south of Provincetown of Pilgrim fame where the magical water infused light illuminates the gentle hills and vails of this town lying between the sometimes-sava...

When Lois and I visited Israel in the Spring of 1973 around six months before the Yom Kippur War, the atmosphere between the Jews and the Arabs seemed reasonably quiescent. One more cautious than me would have grasped that the boiling passions between the two sides were just below the surface. Danger lurked everywhere. Trusting and optimistic Larry chose to book us into the American Colony Hotel,...

Imagine getting killed on your honeymoon in beautiful Jamaica. Lois and I started out in Montego Bay, our first tropical island, in November, 1963, the day after we were wed. What a gorgeous island, its beauty startlingly apparent as soon as we stepped off the plane. The beach and bay were alluring, even seductive. It impelled us to stay in the sun much too long, burning my face and head, and perh...

Jordan and I turned the tables in this podcast. I asked the questions about his depression, and Jordan answered them. That turned out wonderfully, as you will hear. His experience was different than mine, especially his emphasis on time, both in real time, and in time imagined, his depression happening when he was younger, lasting longer, making him feel time was passing him by, and the concept of...

The first part of the title above is demonstrated by myself and my terrific interlocutor on these podcasts, Jordan Rich. Both of us have suffered serious depressions, but both of us, having followed careers requiring expressiveness, I as an attorney and Jordan as a broadcaster, we are able to freely talk about our experiences with encountering this bane of mankind. Rather than tell you with specif...

One of the big ironies in our world is how self-esteem and narcissism are often confounded. One who has self-esteem, self confidence, chutzpah, whatever you want to call it, and backs that up with ability, talent, and accomplishment, is often mistakenly regarded as  narcissistic. Usually such a person has many friends, many of whom help him along the way, despite those many detractors whose animus...

The title of my upcoming memoir cites in its title the three guideposts of my life: Friendship, Inquisitiveness and Maturation. This podcast centers on friendship, and the other two facets are naturally involved in talking about friendship. You will hear about three remarkable and talented musicians, although each is different than the others. Each of them are now joined to me in a friendship that...

One dicey thing about traveling is the time it takes to get a doctor if you become ill or get hurt. Not for presidents, though. Not for me either. Here’s how that goes down. It is yet another facet of friendship. Guifu Wu is a Chinese name. Indeed Guifu Wu is Chinese. In fact, he is one of the top cardioligists in China, despite his youth. Around 2007 he came to Boston to further his expertise at...

As I sit here on February 27,  2021 watching the horrific attack unleashed by Putin on Ukraine, I am thinking of an amazingly peaceful man who can hear “the troops coming out” when he plays the piano. That man is Ran Blake, who plays the piano like no other pianist, speaks like no other person, has a memory like no other person, is like no other person, and is a genius among us, winner of a MacArt...

How do you get from baseball and other kinds of ball to politics when you’re talking about Paul Epstein. Who is Paul Epstein anyway? Well, Paul is the twin brother of Theo Epstein. You know, the smart GM who brought World Championships to the Red Sox and the Cubs after droughts of close to a century or more. Best GM in history probably. There is always a power behind the throne and here it is Paul...

I would ask you to read that title two ways, first as to what makes a person a model public servant, and second as to a public servant known to all of us who fits that description. Reading this note and then listening to this podcast about Massachusetts State Treasurer, Deborah Goldberg, will be my attempt to answer that question as an impartial apolitical observer. When I interviewed Deb on TV fo...