Last weekend I returned from a lovely, restful weekend trip to San Francisco. As I boarded the red-eye back to New York, I found myself hoping that just this once, I would have the ideal flying neighbor–the non-existent one. What I got instead was a middle-aged man, sniffling, sneezing, coughing his way through the 5-hour…

Is pessimism a moral issue? I am honestly not sure. I think it is a character issue, however, and for today, for me, that’s close enough. Why do I want to talk about it? Because “Failure Friday” is where we discuss our character defects – a sort of secular confessional we hope is good for…

Yelling “You lie!” at your president during an address to the joint session of congress. Just… wow. Does disrespect come any more egregious, more shameful, more heinous? If it does, I can’t imagine it. Is it because our president is young? Liberal? Black? None of the above? All of the above? I honestly can’t imagine…

Dental plans are the worst, aren’t they? Some of you may remember my worst-date story in which I also described an accident that resulted in a mouthful of broken teeth – after paying more than half those costs out-of-pocket, I feel traumatized simply walking past a dentist’s office. So I must admit there’s a part…

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