I stopped using the term “straight” to describe heterosexual people many years ago, and the nagging problem of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) with bigotry against those whose sexual expression is other than what they consider “normative” prov… Read full post »

This is a radio documentary that I produced for Public Radio International back in 1994, a history of the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered struggle for civil rights beginning with Germany's Magnus Hirschfeld even before the 20th Century began.

I just learned how to use DropBox to share large files.… Read full post »

I’m not the most courageous man on Earth—not even a close second. So when I pulled on my suit that day and tied my tie, I wasn’t preparing for my usual daily battle in the business world, envisioning myself a knight in shining armor, so much as… Read full post »

My friend Claire, a Boston matron of a "certain age," sent me this as part of an e-mail this morning:

You should see pictures of the Occupy people here in Boston.  The majority are college age kids with no education, jobs, or anything else.  They are dirty, unshaven, the… Read full post »

Murphy was lying on a gurney, wearing nothing but a white hospital gown covered with rows of little blue flowers, reading a Highlights magazine, when I found him in the emergency room.

“Murphy, what's wrong?”

He looked at me a… Read full post »

The man wasn't sure how he'd become Fritz' caretaker. He'd only known him a short while. They'd met in a group of mutual friends only a month or two ago, and started hanging out on Rittenhouse Square and in coffee shops around Center City Philadelphia.

“C'mon, Fritz,” the man… Read full post »

This isn't my first recession. And I'm sure, if I live long enough, it won't be my last. But it's certainly the worst and most difficult to overcome that I've seen in my thirty-plus years in the business world. But, as with any “economic retraction” or whatever they're calling… Read full post »

 I had lunch with Wall Street magnate Thaddeus Ziegheil at one of the fancy eateries on the Upper West Side, to discuss the current state of the economy. Ziegheil was ecstatic.

“Things couldn't be going better,” he said as he dipped his lobster tail in drawn butter, then washed… Read full post »

Jonathan stands at the entrance to Dilworth Plaza, the area on the west side of Philadelphia City Hall that houses the Occupy Philadelphia protestors. I asked him why he's waving the first American flag. "This is the flag of the first American Revolution, and it's a symbol of the new American… Read full post »

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable to you, Eternal Being (Y-H-V-H), my rock and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Lately I've become aware of increasingly strident arguments by atheists and other non-believers against the existence of “God.” I therefore want
… Read full post »

I felt my gut clench when faced with a FaceBook friend request from the guy who bullied me through junior and senior high schools. The old “fight or flight” response kicking in? I found myself weighing whether he could somehow harm me, more than forty years later.

… Read full post »

On the second day of Rosh Hashanah we read the troubling story called “The Akedah” – the ”Binding of Isaac.” It is a foundational tale in Torah that offers profound lessons within a complex narrative.

We read in… Read full post »

The small boat chugged along over the choppy waters of the bay under bright sunny skies. The weather man had called for temperatures in the mid-seventies, a perfect day for deep sea fishing. The marine report said the seas were between three and five feet. The wind would be a bit… Read full post »

Imagine my surprise when, riding on the avenue, I saw my friend Murphy walking, carrying a sign that read, God Made Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve!

"Pull over! Pull over!” I screamed at my driver. “Murphy!” I yelled out the window. “Get… Read full post »

I came through the door to find my butler in quite a state of agitation.

“Your friend...'Murph'”—he didn't so much state the name as sneer it--“awaits you in the library.” He hesitated. “Be careful, sir.”

I opened the door to my library only to be… Read full post »