Just what I always wanted Just what I needed too Just what I always hoped for Just what I wished would come true Who could have ever dreamed it? Who could have foretold this fate? Who could have seen this coming? Who could anticipate That on this very birthday We…

Sometimes life imitates art. On occasion, it can extract insights from art that seep into our behavior and experiences. That happened to me just the other night. The art in this case is the ultra-popular and critically lauded FX series “The Bear,” streaming on Hulu. I was a late adopter…

At the Annual Whitehouse Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2011, President Barak Obama sought a small measure of revenge against Donald Trump, who was in the audience. Trump had waged a relentless and ultimately successful “birther” campain to force Obama to produce his birth certificate to prove he was born in…

Non-members can read this story for free at this link Last year at just about this time, I bought my best friend Phil a Kindle for his birthday and shipped it across country to him in Southern California. A fellow boomer like me, he’d been reluctant to even think about…

Malaga Sky kisses the sea Becomes one with the air Warmed by the sun Malaga Sky extends beyond thought Enveloping everything Wanting nothing Malaga Sky has only one mood Beyond good or bad Forever content Get an email whenever Martin D. Hirsch publishes. Get an email whenever Martin D. Hirsch publishes. By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don't already…medium.com

“I couldn’t help but think of you.” That was the subject line of an email from an old friend of mine — a fellow American expat who worked with me both in the U.S., as well as in Switzerland when our pharma company sent us on assignments there in the…

You be the judge. Who explains it better — the robot or the trained human journalist? — Tony Bennett, who died this week at 96, spanned my parents’ generation and my own. As Time magazine reported, he sang duets with Judy Garland and Lady Gaga. And he had almost half a million followers on Instagram. When I read his obituary in The New York Times, I was…

I like to look. And listen. The combination of sight and sound map the course of my curiosity as I wander the city. The French poet Charles Baudelaire came up with a name for the ever-observant street rambler: he called such a person a “flaneur.” The great Makhail Baryshnikov, answering…

At 81, Graham Nash is 10 years older than me. In 1962, when he was 21 and starting The Hollies, I was 11 and starting 6th grade. My family had just moved from the little chicken farm in rural central New Jersey where I was born to the teeming Philadelphia…