With an option to renew
Intro This past Monday was my semi-annual check-in with my oncologist to see if my chronic lymphocytic leukemia has progressed beyond Stage Zero. It hasn’t,...
Haiku for Business Travelers
Sorry to send 2 of these emails out in a week, but the long-(un)awaited second issue of my Haiku for Business Travelers ’zine came in from the printer...
The Haze
Intro I was going to tell you a story this week about a guy I kindasorta left for dead many years ago, and how I found out on Sunday he’s still alive. But I...
Vita Beata
Intro “Soto! Explore thyself!Therein thyself shalt findThe ‘Undiscovered Continent’ —No Settler had the Mind.”Emily Dickinson, #814 As part of my morning...
No Show
Intro “There is no Diligence like thatThat knows not an Until –”Emily Dickinson, #880 No podcast for you! Late last week, after a really busy month-plus of...
Talking drugs
Intro A team from 6 of the ~45 companies I represent at my trade association, + me (2nd from right). The last guy on the right is Newton to my Liebniz, or...
The Brush without the Hand
Intro This is my first installment in a few weeks not written on the road or immediately after getting home from biz travel, for which I’m thankful but . . ....
Ticketed Passengers Only Beyond This Point
Intro I got back from a business trip this morning. I landed around 4:30 a.m. in Newark after 36 hours in San Diego. It was almost just airport-hotel-...
No Geography
Intro [This began as an Instagram post, but transformed] On November 12, 2019 I stayed in the Historic Hotel Bethlehem in Bethlehem, PA for a client event...
Witness
Intro I’d like to write about something else this week, but I can’t. The guest I was going to record with on Saturday, Michael Denneny, was dead in his...
Trainwriting
Intro I’m on a train to Washington for some afternoon lobbying visits. The wifi’s awful today (it’s been better recently), so no idea when I’ll be able to...
There Is A Light
Intro I’m going to St. Louis to see my family this weekend. I haven’t seen my brother since 2018, nor my mom since 2017. Which, when I say, “I’m a horrible...
Cave, Man
Intro “[L]ife is mostly spent putting ourselves back together. But hopefully in new & interesting ways. For me that is what the creative process is . . . the...
Spelunking
Intro Last Saturday I watched 20,000 Days On Earth, the 2014 doc about Nick Cave. I don’t know Cave’s work, except for a song he did for the soundtrack of...
Et In Acedia Ego
Intro As a Jew, I treat the Seven Deadly Sins as a clinical curiosity, and maybe as a set of self-help/self-assessment guardrails, but as a member of...
Kerouac and Zeno and maybe next time
Intro My dad bought me a Hyundai Excel when I was in college. I ate a guardrail with it a few months into my ownership — missed a car in my blindspot on 91...
Library of Babble
Intro Thanks for the well-wishes, prayers, etc. for my pal I wrote about last week. I can’t tell you any more about that just now, but as a sign of how my...
Worry and Hope
Intro My pal John is having brain surgery today or tomorrow. He was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor last week after a seizure episode, with no real symptoms...
Tribe of Zero
Intro I attended a support group meeting a few nights ago. First time I ever did that. It was for people with stage zero chronic lymphocytic leukemia (that...
Lobby Boy
Intro I’d hardly call anything I do triumphant, but I did make my return to Capitol Hill yesterday, for a series of meetings with Congressional staff (a few...
Accept the Mystery
Intro “Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing...
Capitol Idea
Intro No time for a real update this week; sorry. Yesterday I took the train to Washington, DC. This is my first trip since Feb. 28, 2020. I’m here for a...
Death & Seltzer-Bottles
Intro On Saturday, I visited the funniest cemetery ever. I had just finished recording this week’s podcast with Ross Benjamin about his new translation of...
52 Pickup
Intro My future wife & I had our second date at the Hi Life Bar & Grill on the Upper West Side. It was a Sunday, and we watched an NFL playoff game while we...
Two Gentlemen With The 'Rona
Intro Welcome to the first Substack edition of my Virtual Memories Show e-mail! I put up a post last week about why I’m trying this platform instead of...
Welcome To My Virtual Memories
Subscribe now Why Substack? Why Now? I’m Gil Roth and I’ve been making The Virtual Memories Show podcast for more than 10 years, posting weekly conversations...