Every time I read another news report or opinion piece about the Great Resignation — and that’s a lot of times — I find myself thinking about my own career and what I would have lost had I quit or jumped jobs on the occasions I felt frustrated or undervalued…

My History of Highlighting: Following the Fluorescent Yellow Path to the Heart of Reading… and Writing Highlighting text in bright yellow has been a habit of mine for as long as I can remember. When I tried to think back to when I first started, I came up empty. So I did a little digging and found out that the highlighter was invented in 1962 by…

When I began getting serious with my Chinese girlfriend, my Jewish mother cautioned me that I was not as big a countercultural renegade as I liked to imagine. Beware the perils of a mixed marriage, she warned; they could be more daunting than I was prepared for: unfamiliar customs, cultural…

Hi readers. That was my attempt at a click-bait headline. Whadaya think? — I bet if my name was Emily Ratajkowski, this post would’ve gone mega-viral already. Heck, the super-sexy supermodel’s new book, My Body, was an instant New York Times best-seller. Is anyone surprised? Being born a beautiful female, as we all know, is the most potent form of privilege. You won’t…

A CNN newsflash across my iPhone screen on Saturday announced that Michael Lang, who was a driving force behind the Woodstock Music & Arts Fair that turned the summer of 1969 into a life-changing experience for me and many in my generation, had died at 77. When I turned to…

“Hey Martin, how did you like your Staples rubber bands?” “How was your HP ink cartridge?” “Did your Spectrum technical services representative resolve your problem?” “Could you please rate your Amazon delivery?” What on earth do these people expect? “Dear Staples, my rubber bands exceeded expectations! Not too tight, not…

My beloved Uncle Murray At a sprightly ninety-five Was looking fit and going strong And vigorously alive. He swam each day, played tennis too, Enjoyed the occasional Bloody Mary, Loved long drives along the shore Seemed touched by a youth-giving fairy. I asked him once when he first felt old …

Although I haven’t seen Steven Spielberg’s new “West Side Story” movie, I saw the original when I was 10 and loved it. It didn’t surprise me, though, to read a couple of reviews of the remake by critics who resent its caricature of Puerto Rican people and culture, and feel…

Bucket lists were never my thing. But I never turned 70 before. At the end of this month, I will. And a single item has emerged as something I absolutely must do — or rather return to doing — before the final curtain: Go fishing. In the role that won…