Page One Story
We pulled into the funeral home parking lot just after 8 pm, found a spot, and waited for the cops to show up.It was June 1988. I had just started working as a reporter for the Pocono Record, moving to Pennsylvania from Brooklyn a month earlier, and on this night I was handling the

Tale of the Ticker Tape
A decade ago, while working as a reporter in Connecticut, I was driving through some small town on my way to some forgettable assignment and listening to the news on the radio.The Yankees had won the World Series and New York was going to give them a ticker tape parade that very afternoon.

Love in the Time of Swine Flu
There once was a time when I looked forward to the sign of peace.That’s the part of the mass where you shake hands with everybody around you. It's kind of like a spiritual version of the seventh inning stretch.We started doing the sign of peace in the Catholic Church when I was in grammar

Peace Now
I finally found peace this week.No, not serenity, calm, stillness or tranquility—don’t be ridiculous. I’m still as neurotic as ever. I’m talking about a novel called Peace by Richard Bausch, a gift from my brother which I thought I had lost somewhere between

Sound Tracks
I was doing my evening shopping the other night when I heard a familiar song on the radio.I had trouble making out the tune because of the noise around me, but I knew I’d heard this song before. As I put my groceries down in front of the cashier, I listened carefully and tried to f