New Carpet I purchased new carpeting for my son’s room last week. You wouldn’t believe how badly a five-year old boy’s carpet can look and smell after a few short years. Stains and spots were scattered from the center of the room to its most remote corners. With some we knew the origin, others remained [...]

Beans, Beans, Good for Your Heart (but not your arrest record… or your pedicure) Last week I read a story in The Evening Standard that opened with the sentence: “Hugh Grant has been arrested after allegedly hurling a tub of baked beans at a photographer.” O.K., I’ll bite. How can one read an opening line [...]

Roll Out the Vertical Stripes The diet is over. On January 8th I began dieting in preparation of a photographer flying in from New York to shoot my next book. My goal was to lose 30 pounds in four months. The time has come. The photographer is here. I hit just above 50% of my [...]

So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star When I was six-years old I wanted to be Darren Stevens when I grew up. Not only was I attracted to the idea of being married to a smoking hot woman who could make problems disappear with a twitch of her nose, I liked the [...]

Soft-Shell Crab Soft-shell crab season is here. Halleluiah, amen, and pass the Remoulade sauce! Two weeks ago the first shipment of soft-shell crabs arrived— alive and kicking— to the back door of our restaurants. Since then we have received daily shipments and can’t buy enough to keep up with the demand. There is a simple [...]

Bake Sales Many of our childhood school activities fall by the wayside as we grow older. Today I don’t play tetherball or box hockey. I haven’t roller skated in years. I don’t think I’ve played an all-out game of dodge ball since the Carter administration, and I haven’t played tackle football since I was in [...]

Viral Victuals I’ve got a virus. My particular virus is not influenza, a common cold, or a computer virus. I don’t have chickenpox, mumps, Ebola, or rabies. There are many viruses with exotic and interesting names such as: cereal yellow dwarf virus, Leaky virus, and Four Corners hantavirus. There are virus named after plants and [...]

Blessed Fish and My Grandmother’s Lamb We are smack dab in the middle of the Lenten Season and Easter is only a few weeks away. This time of year always brings memories of my grandmother’s dining room. Easters used to be elaborate occasions in my family— new church clothes, hidden candy tucked away in pastel-colored [...]

Spring Break Diary Day One: Saturday 4:30a.m.— I wake up early for a 9:30a.m. flight out of Jackson. Last night I told my wife we needed to leave the house no later than 6:30 a.m. I organize luggage, locate airline tickets, and condo confirmation numbers. The rest of my family sleeps peacefully. 6:23 a.m.— My [...]

Pancakes and Passings I buried my grandmother today. She was the only one I had left. I was fortunate to have spent all of my childhood and a good part of my early adult years with both grandmothers, each playing a crucial role in my upbringing. My paternal grandmother passed away 17 years ago, my [...]