Loyal readers know that I was relieved to make the discovery that a gap year, according to the British definition, is 15 months long. We’re at the end of the twelfth month. That means we’ve got a few more months to close out a year of reinvention. So what have I learned? What is the […]
The usual explanation for the pleasures of grandparenting is that you get all the fun without the bother. You can spoil the child and when they misbehave you can give them back. My take after the last 72 hours is different. I have three granddaughters. Two of them, sisters, live in Brooklyn. The third, an […]
Talk about cultural whiplash. Yesterday I was filling out my Moose Permit Lottery Application and dreaming of WMDs (Wildlife Management Districts). Today I am in Brooklyn, NY. Let me explain. As we enter the preantepenultimate (I love that word) month of our Gap Year I am fulfilling a couple of promises to others and to myself. […]
We had the same conversation over and over before embarking on our gap year. “What about the money?” Sam would ask. The question was simple. The subtext was not. The topic, of course, was Sam leaving his medical practice. The subtext was how could we afford to live without his salary. And the bigger implications: […]
The greatest stressors in life are disease, death, divorce and déménagement. Debbie and I are in the midst of the latter and although it may be the least important, still… We are spending a month in Washington to enjoy our last foreseeable spring in Georgetown, a gloriously gardened and architecturally resplendent enclave. Spring is beautiful […]
I’ve been reaching out to healthcare reform leaders in Maine. The result of one such effort was an unexpected dinner invitation to the home of Philip Caper, M.D. and his wife Karen Foster in nearby Brooklin, ME. I had emailed Phil blindly, using the email with which he ends his regular guest column for the Bangor Daily […]
I have been working with various free portals to access the newly available data on Medicare payments to providers. I would like to pass along what I have learned. Then I would like to comment on how you, the above average consumer (like the children of Lake Woebegone, all our readers are above average), can […]
