anecdotes
The Plot Against Hoboken Jack
AN OPPORTUNITY CAME UP AND I THOUGHT OF YOU! read the e-mail’s subject line. My spam radar went off but, no, the sender was totally legit: Gail Solomon, VP of communications at my beloved Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation. Evidently, a casting agency had contacted her, looking for a white, caucasian, double amputee (check, check, and […]
Adventures in Cured Meat
I had received a box of meat in the mail. The note within indicated it was from my prodigal roommate Joe in North Carolina, and the gesture was not out of character for either of us. It was an assortment of vacuum-packed cured country ham in different shapes and sizes, from different providers. Joe wrote […]
Field notes from Albany (part one)
The Catholic Church in my neighborhood closed a few years ago when two parishes were consolidated. Fortunately the buildings were preserved. The church itself is now occupied by an advertising agency called Overit. Now every time I walk by, I think “Once I was Catholic, now I’m Overit”. They had an open house a while […]
Modern Kindness
I was the only one in line at the Rite Aid until she showed up, a little confused, not sure if she entering the queue from the front or the back. We joked a little (“You’re after me!”; “Maybe I am!” she flirtatiously replied), and I’d say we were “meeting cute” except that it would […]
Hallucination #3: Springsteen
A series of recollected hallucinations from my early weeks of hospitalization, 2016. As Bruce Springsteen begins his highly anticipated run on Broadway, I thought it was high time to recount when my infection-ravaged mind took me from the hospital to E Street. I certainly had Bruce on the brain: I entered Hoboken University Medical Center […]
Missing a Few Screws
My TV crapped out. Purchased in 2008, it was my first HDTV. Oh the times we had together. But recently, I noticed some distortion on particularly bright parts of images. And then Monday, just after Jeopardy!, the whole screen went psychedelic. Now, I need my TV. As my friend Karen said, “Dude, TV is important!” […]
Backpack Backtrack
I take very good care of my backpacks. (Umbrellas too, but that’s another story.) As a result, I can remember every backpack I’ve ever owned. When my sister was graduating college, I was graduating high school, so she bequeathed me her grey JanSport backpack to begin my own university career. That was my first. JanSport […]
Hallucination #2: Improv
A series of recollected hallucinations from my early weeks of hospitalization, 2016. A nursing assistant — who I believe was an actual fellow at Hoboken University Medical Center — was placing me in some odd situations. The clearest one was an after-hours party, which seemed to be held at a motel, yet it was still […]
Hallucination #1: Harry Connick Jr.
Memories of the first seven weeks of my lengthy hospitalization range from spotty to non-existent. However, a series of vivid hallucinations during this period — end of August to mid-October, 2016 — are crystal clear in my mind. It’s likely I was suffering from a condition known as “ICU psychosis,” though other factors are certainly […]
The $900 Plate of Ziti
I’d been having a hankering for ziti. Not just any ziti, mind you, but the ziti and ricotta with meatball at my regular Saturday lunch place, Piccolo’s. Except, ziti hasn’t been on the Saturday specials board this winter. The fellas behind the counter told me that Monday through Thursday, I could get ziti. I’m not […]
Jack Silbert, curator