I figured a quick trip upstate before winter settles in and the third wave hits us was the cure-all needed. So, the mermaid and I packed a few bags and hit the highway. She booked an Airbnb just outside of town. My kids have used Airbnb, but I never did, preferring the safety of big hotel chains, but the mermaid picked the perfect location overlooking the Shawangunk ridge and the tower at Mohonk. The one room accommodation had an outdoor hot tub, and it stopped raining just enough for a dip in

Even a global pandemic can’t keep friends apart. For over thirty years, a group of friends from Greenpoint where I grew up, made the trek out to Montauk under the guise of a fishing trip. The trip was originally organized by one of New York’s bravest and his brother, and sadly both are no longer with us. But their spirit has guided the remaining friends over the last decade to continue the tradition. So, with masks firmly in place and more Purell than beer this year, the core ventured East.

 Recently the mermaid was going through some documents and came across four documents that were not immediately clear as to what they were. They all seemed to be deeds for plots in Calvary cemetery. The mermaid descendants, on her mother’s side, from a long line of Hendersons. An Ancestry.com search years ago confirmed that the Hendersons were a mix of Irish, Scottish and British ancestry, but we could not go back any further than early 1900s when the family ran a funeral parlor on the West

 I have written about the potential decline of New York City recently, with great sadness, I might add. But today I write to tell you that news of NYC’s death has been greatly exaggerated. I have been a tourist in our own home city because the city holds great hidden secrets and no one who lives here really bothers to look for them. If you were on vacation, especially overseas, you might not think twice about booking a tour of the city. But few residents would ever do so in their own city. I

 Those who know me, know that I love our city and consider it to be the greatest city on earth. Not that I have visited every city on earth and can make that claim with verifiable proof, I just know it in my bones. But recently I have had some ominous feelings about our city. I’m usually the first to shrug off all the bad karma that has been happening. And I agree that there is a lot of awful stuff happening living within this science-fiction-pandemic movie with political and anarchist side

 Alrighty, alrighty, don’t get your knickers in a knot! Ever hear that saying? No one uses the term “knickers” anymore, but in the “olden” days, it referred to your shorts, underwear that is. And the saying meant don’t get all excited and uptight…you know, like bunched up underwear, very uncomfortable.

My grand old father-in-law, Big Bill Stogey, used to say, “ok kids, go play in traffic.” Now before you get all politically correct on me, he was usually talking to the adults when he said that