95 Picadilly

Several months back, a friend asked if I’d judge Miss Kentucky. The task sounded simple enough. You sit on a panel of judges, you ask a few questions (helped along by my news background), and help select the next titleholder to represent the Commonwealth at the national pageant in Las Vegas. Easy peasy, or so…

Perhaps, we’ve tired of baseball, or hearing about it anyway, but I’ve driven back in the past this week. As you grow older, the game inevitably seems different, its heroes smaller than the giants who came before. Yet somehow, when the stadium lights go up during the postseason and the evening air turns crisp, it’s…

I was working on yet another baseball column – exploring DiMaggio and a Maris baseball. But I try to change direction when society – or even pop culture – directs it. When the news broke that Diane Keaton had passed away, I, like many around the world, was surprised, and Joltin’ Joe, as the song…

As baseball’s postseason gets underway – and my Yankees struggle endlessly in the ALDS in Toronto – I couldn’t help but feel my annual tinge of excitement for America’s Pastime. I’ve loved sport my entire life and have happily participated in my share – golf, tennis, cricket, ad nauseam – but it was baseball that…

This week’s cooler than I’d like temperatures were a certain indicator that the last of summer is slipping into fall, as the leaves tumble from treetops and colors begin bursting across landscapes as if touched by the hand of Van Gogh. It’s the time of year that many people favor, as Mother Nature bursts from…

Over the weekend, I sat out to see the latest -and last – installment in the Downtown Abbey universe, and while it did feel like saying goodbye to people I’d known for 15 years, it also introduced a breath of modernity into the world. The film is set in 1930, a period when much was…

I spent years of my life in politics.  Deeply, deeply involved at times.  It’s an “institution” that not many understand, as the inside can look different than the out –  with different expectations – but it’s one that has a tendency to suck you up into some vortex that requires cognitive conformity.  If you’re wearing…

“You either scream or your body will scream for you.”  Those were the words spoken by Ashley Roberts, the American-born, British-based, former member of the Pussycat Dolls.  On some level, Roberts’ words were simple, yet I found them profound as I was getting ready for work one Tuesday morning, tuned in, as is not uncommon,…

95 Piccadilly As September dawns, I am compelled, as usual, to acknowledge Suicide Prevention Month, a proactive moment on the calendar that seeks to combat an often-undiscussed pandemic.  Sadly, it’s one that my family knows too well. Our story began on November 5, 1986.  It’s a day that changed the trajectory of my life. As the sun dawned that morning, I had two siblings. By late afternoon, there was only one. Because of that,…

Grief is an odd thing, isn’t it?  It’s a bit like a noose that never completely lets go of its grip.  Just when you think you’re liberated, it grabs hold again with a menacing clutch.  That seems the story of my life since losing my sister in April.  Though I’d lost my older brother when…