Let's say I had a highly communicable disease. How about we call it mondocrazyitis. This mondocrazyitis of mine was so contagious that if you stood in a room with me, you might catch it. Even talking to me on the phone left you vulnerable to my cooties.

Yet you see… Read full post »

 

I'm not professing that the following programs and films are the best ever. My Top Ten Netflix Suggestions consisted of the heavyweights. This list is composed of semi-mindless entertainment where one can comfortably zone out, which we all need sometimes, right? 

 

 

 

I deliberated long and hard about this post. Would I sound racist? Intolerant? Can I even use the term “illegal immigrants”? Then I began to internally rail against a stifling political climate, where it’s difficult to utter one word about racial issues or imm… Read full post »

 

 

Most of my life, I've waited for my mentor to come along. You know, that magical, mystical (and hopefully hot) elder who would gently yet firmly instruct and guide me down the yellow brick road of life.

But alas, nobody. Sure, some… Read full post »

 

(Originally appeared in Freedom is Green, a medical marijuana advocacy site.)

I've been a long-time fan and Internet friend of Mr. Dan Carlin, a Libertarian-leaning journalist, commentator and historian who painstakingly crafts some of the best podcasts in podcast history.

Hardcore H… Read full post »

 

 

 

In the movies, I’m at my dying aunt’s bedside, a band of loving cousins surrounding me. I’m singing a song she used to sing with my mother and other aunts and uncles a long, long time ago. When they’d sit around the kitchen… Read full post »

 

[This is a piece I wrote several years ago that seems timely considering the d-i-v-o-r-c-e.]

 

I don’t have the movie star hots for Tom Cruise. I don’t even like him much as actor. He seems like a shiny little alien on Scientology overdrive. But while in… Read full post »

 

Okay, I had to laugh when I first saw this anti-sex trafficking campaign from the Demi and Ashton Foundation. Some Hollywood heavyweights bandied together for a cause. Not unheard of. A good publicist makes sure his or her client has a sturdy cause…

Read full post »

 

 

 

 

So you and I were groggy, lying in bed, waking, touching one another. My thoughts were sleepily wandering from one topic to the next. I started telling you a story from my past that I never finished.

 It… Read full post »

 

The Good Weather Glee Club

The Good Weather Glee Club: I can't stand this rain. It's supposed to be 85 degrees tomorrow and sunny. Can't wait.

Me: Hmm...it's March. I find those temperatures disconcerting this early.

The Good Weather Glee Club:  Really?? I LOVE it.

Me: Do you

… Read full post »

 Originally written for Freedom is Green.

On Tuesday, I woke up to find that the Supreme Court of the United States ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to… Read full post »

When you look at me like that, I don't know what to do. It's too stimulating, too exciting.

For such a shy man, it's such a bold act, the way you stare. Audacious. It makes me admire you. It makes me think you're a surprise. And I like surprises.

I try to maintain… Read full post »

A final blow to the head and he was out cold, face down, glistening drool seeping from his cracked, nicotine-stained lips. And I was the one who did it. I warned him that I would. That I could. But he didn't… Read full post »

Man, I was hungover on Saturday. I went surfing with my friend in the a.m. but after I came home and took a hot shower, I was done, kaput.

So when I saw that Whitney Houston's funeral would be viewable online, I thought, "Perfect, Beth Mann. You have a plan. You could… Read full post »

Say Anything came out… Read full post »

 Some musicians are a little too smart for their own good. They're not bad or anything. Just could stand a little lightening up occasionally. A little...self-serious, perhaps. This is because they "smarted the fun out of music."

WARNING! Do not defend the band to us or you'd be seriously… Read full post »

I walk by the house on my way to the beach every day. It's a massive, faceless house but it overlooks the ocean. And here, that means everything.

Last week, I noticed several cars parked in the driveway.… Read full post »

It doesn't take much to excite me at this point of the winter. It's cold, dreary and desolate at the Jersey shore and I wear pajamas and my "suicide robe" (as I affectionately call it) entirely too much. Teeth are brushed only if they're lucky. And one day… Read full post »

“Are you calling me a liar?” I asked the stone-faced 20-something cashier.

“No, I’m just saying that lots of customers tell us a price is cheaper than it is."

“So you are calling me a liar. The cabbage is 69 cents a pound. Check it if you don’t believe me. B… Read full post »

My New Year's resolution made over a decade ago was to touch people more. To break that social wall that keeps our hands and bodies a safe distance from one other. To connect more physically.

I'm speaking of the/… Read full post »

[This is a repost from last year. Happy holidays, all! ]

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Okay, there's actually a small handful of good holiday songs and the rest should be candy caned to death. (The rest will be revealed at the end of the piece. Don't peak.)

Do They Know it's… Read full post »

Because of the popularity of our last Open Call, Alysa Salzberg (of Alysa Salzberg fame) and I decided to join forces once again and compose a complementary list to 7 Things I'm Surprised I Like.


Here goes:

1. Zebras

I love animals. LOVE them. They make me believe in God and everything… Read full post »

_{Click on funny NJ map to enlarge.}


Jersey. No, not like the show The Jersey Shore. That bears no resemblance to the South Jersey existence I'm tethered to. Mine is the Jersey shore that's entering a long… Read full post »

 

And maybe there are seasons. And maybe they change. And maybe to love is not so strange. - Dan Fogelberg, To the Morning

 

I'm going to give away the punchline: I fell in love with a… Read full post »

1. Southern Rock

Musically, I never saw this one coming. Born and raised on 70's pop, I should dislike this kind of macho heavy-handed, long-jam rock whose lyrics can lean toward bigotry and closed-mindedness. But play a little Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band or ZZ Top and ou… Read full post »