See You in September

Yes, I know that September is a week away. Still, I’m convinced that this last week of August—the lazy, slow days leading up to the Labor Day Holiday Weekend—is a good time to regroup, reorganize, rethink, and maybe even relax. I’ll be back for my usual twice-weekly Monster Meditations soon. More monsters, mysteries, and myths and more contemplations about how, when, where, how, and why writers write…  
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Eclipse 2017

As I watched the eclipse—through special glasses—I couldn’t help but wonder what an eclipse might mean to people from a time & place without the science needed to predict or understand it. I watched it from the 72nd Street Pier on the West Side of Manhattan with my cousin, some friends, and a picnic lunch. We knew exactly what was going to happen and we even had reports from my cousin’s husband in Northern California as he previewed our experience and gave a few safety oriented photographic suggestions. As the eclipse rolled across the country—from West to East, in a
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Collecting Mysterious Locations

Lately, I’ve been collecting mysterious locations. From the monk’s wine cellar (turned restaurant) in the monastery (turned hotel) in Evora, Portugal to the strange alignment of mirrors and shelves full of bottles at a fancy, downtown bar in Manhattan. I’m not a good enough photographer to have captured the slightly disorienting effect in the bar, so I’ll try to explain it. We were seated at an abrupt and tight curve in a central part of a long bar that curved to accommodate turning a corner leading into a larger room, but the placement of mirrors and bottles, left a spot—right
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Revisiting Classic Monsters

King Kong is back. This time he’s on ‘Skull Island’ with a stellar cast (including John Goodman, John C. Reilly, Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Tom Hiddleston), but I’m not excited about this new, and probably not improved, visit to a classic monster. I’ll see it—eventually—on a plane when I can’t sleep…. You get the picture. It folded quickly in the theaters and now haunts my Netflix queue, hovering with lack of interest. Sometimes it’s best to leave the old monsters alone. And then there are times when a re-write or remake or revisit is an inspired leap for
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The Cat Muse

My cat died last week. It wasn’t an unexpected death. He was old, skinny, and had at least two dire, but unconfirmed, diagnoses. As the diagnostic procedures would have killed him I’ll never know if the lump near his jugular vein was benign or cancerous, nor will I ever get confirmation of the brain lesion that may, or may not, have caused the onset of asymmetry in his eyes. It looks like he had a heart attack and was left in grave discomfort if not outright pain. That’s how I found him. It was the end. So, in the midst
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Overheard

In New York there’s an illusion of privacy, an agreement to ignore (or appear to ignore) the personal conversations that take place in public places. In the last few days I’ve seen people cry, express anger and exasperation, and, in general, say things that are not meant for my ears. But this is a crowded city. People pass you on the street and you hear snippets of conversations. In restaurants, with tables close together, most people “pretend” not to overhear, but… When I told the waiter I didn’t want the baguette with my salad… “I really like the mini seededl
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Medical History

I love art museums. If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time, you know that ART, Tango, Theater, Travel & Mystery Fiction are my five big passions. What you might not have guessed is that I also go to NON-Art museums. After having studied American history and art history at NYU, I’ve often wondered about other kinds of history—specifically the history of science. In my long-post college years, I’ve become more and more interested in how science changes society and society changes science. Visiting a Natural History Museum is an adventure in science and it can also
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Words with Hidden Prejudice

Back in June there was a horrific incident in a New York City hospital. A former employee—an unstable man who had quit under pressure after accusations of sexual harassment and with a history that included an arrest for sex abuse—brought an AR-15 rifle to the hospital and opened fire on his former colleagues before setting himself on fire and shooting himself in the head. It was a workplace nightmare on steroids! The doctor went postal*. I had dinner with a doctor friend that night and he was horrified. Six people were injured and one was killed. The medical personnel did
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