Thoughts of a Common Man

Of course, I admired Robert Duvall as an actor - he was so great in so many roles. “I love the smell of Napalm in the morning.” The Godfather. The Great Santini. Yet, the role that got me was “The Apostle”. Not sure that was his most watched movie, but I remember watching that one and thinking: “Man, that was one of the best jobs of acting I’ve ever seen.” Now, he was 95 years old, and he deserves accolades and a lot of tributes… …but the people who post: “What a horrible loss!” He was 95! He wasn’t acting anymore. “I’m shocked at the loss of Robert Duvall!” Really? Shocked? He was great, though… …and his performances will certainly live on. Watch “The Apostle” if you haven’t. It was a masterpiece.

Netflix has an Epstein series regarding his arrest back in the West Palm Beach days around 2005. Before each episode they run a disclaimer that “There are interactions with minors that some may find disturbing.” Some???? It’s hard to believe that so much was just let slide back then. Notes on telephone pads saying that one girl was running late because she had to stay in school. One of the first girls on the show spoke about how young she was and how she’d never even thought about herself in that way - she was only fourteen! - and how she never, ever thought of herself the same way again. Ruined lives. And I know there are a whole lot of people who are turning a blind eye to it. My wife doesn’t want to watch it. “It’s too insane.” Yeah, it certainly is. Some may even find it disturbing. I explained to a friend that we are in the stage where MAGA digests the sick information and processes it. In an effort to excuse it. Some have already floated excuses by saying the age of consent is to...

There was no crazy Valentine’s Day celebration here at Camp Clifford. No cards, or flowers or chocolates. In fact, we didn’t even mention it. I did bring my Mom a candy bar and some cupcakes, but I usually do that each week anyway. Kathy has never cared about any of the celebrations for any event - we forgot our anniversary one year, celebrating it, by going out to dinner, on the wrong day. In fact, the only memories I have about any sort of Valentine’s Day celebrations goes way back to grammar school when we’d be expected to bring a Valentine for all of our classmates. I do recall making sure that I gave the best one to the girl I had a crush on, but it didn’t have much of an impact. I certainly had a date or two on Valentine’s Day in high school or college… …but certainly nothing earth-shattering. Yet, it’s freaking February! There has to be something to look forward to. So, I checked out sone of the posts on social media. Flowers here… …out to dinner there. And there’s going to be d...

Pam Bondi made a complete fool of herself in front of Congress. She was belligerent, nasty and biased. The thing about her job is that she’s supposed to be impartial. She sure seems to be favoring the members of the administration and protecting pedophiles. At one point, she mentioned that they were ‘moving on’ from the files, and it was further announced that there would be no more arrests. All the while the information continues to be leaked. Listen, it’s the last thing I want to discuss. Rape of children. Murder. Even stories of possible cannibalism. That’s what they want to move on from? And imagine the men who KNOW what they did, and now realize that their crimes will see the light of day. Alan Dershowitz, who penned an opinion that the age of consent is too high. He famously mentioned that he received a massage but kept his underwear on. I read some claims made by victims who implied that he most certainly did not keep his underwear on, and that he allegedly raped children who ha...

Much of the country has been caught up in the story of Nancy Guthrie, an 84-year-old woman who appears to have been kidnapped from her home. The horrible story has demanded our attention because Nancy is the mother of reporter and news anchor Savannah Guthrie, who coincidentally enough interviewed the Epstein survivors. It’s a crazy story. A ring camera caught images of the person who may be responsible, but we didn’t see a lot because the person was dressed like an ICE agent. A ransom was offered. There have been tearful pleas from family members, and leads and clues, and hopelessness. And of course, it has turned into a social media event where the most nasty amongst us say things like: “Who cares? People go missing every day!” Or “They’re only looking for her because her daughter is rich!” Sad stuff. I’m hoping the woman is somehow safely returned. Imagine how terrified she is. Try and think about how heartbroken her children and grandchildren are. Empathy. Hopefully, we can find it...

I started writing on November 15th. Just a solid first chapter that centered around my sister calling me by the nickname she has for me. I started the story the day before the Blizzard of ‘77, and then included a story I’d heard, as a kid, about a man who’d taken his half of the house (during divorce proceedings) by using an excavator. Just writing for writing’s sake, and a funny thing happened: The characters took off. By December 1st, I was all in. Wrote into my phone, thinking about their lives. I knew I had something special because I was gifted the plot, and it held a message. Something I had to say. On Monday night, I went to sleep, knowing that I had to get out of bed around 5:00. Woke up at 1:00 anyway because I had the final few pages that I needed. I wrote them into my phone, and when I woke up, I wondered if what I’d written down out of a deep sleep was going to make any sense. It did. That afternoon, I typed the final few pages, and a book that I’d started writing on Novemb...