Hitting The Links: 12/10/23
Gates of Heck It was a tiring week, but at least the podcast I had scheduled for today had to postpone to next weekend, so I can ‘relax’ (and just get in 2...
Strange Currencies
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 566 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. poet Christian Wiman as we celebrate his amazing new book, ZERO AT THE BONE:...
Hitting The Links: 12/3/23
Rabbi, Poet, Psycho-Man “It is not required of you that you complete the work, but neither are you free to desist from it.”—Rabbi Tarfon, quote by Harold...
Minimal Wage
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 565 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. writer & editor Danny Fingeroth as we celebrate his new biography, JACK RUBY:...
Hitting The Links: 11/26/23
Either/Oar I was writing my daily postcard on Friday, when it occurred to me that it was 20 years since I semi-celebrated Thanksgiving in New Zealand. I had...
Thanks
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 564 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. cartoonist & editor Matt Bors. With The Nib, Matt helped build an online (and...
Hitting The Links: 11/19/23
Priors Authorization I didn’t tell him about my dream. That night, sleepless and feverish, as I began to come down with what I hope is just a cold, I had a...
Like It's 1999
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 563 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. master essayist Phillip Lopate in a conversation about his new collection, A...
Hitting The Links: 11/12/23
Lest We Forget GIL: Are you prepared for the first anniversary of Diane’s death? I’m one of those date-fixated people.BILL: It’s not of great importance to...
Mr. President
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 562 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. the return of cartoonist Leslie Stein. With her wonderful, hilarious &...
Hitting The Links: 11/5/23
Unitard I got to record with Phillip Lopate yesterday. That episode will air in a few weeks — in the meantime GO READ his new essay collection, A Year And A...
Analog Digital
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 561 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. a conversation with cartoonist Josh Bayer. With his new graphic novel/memoir,...
Hitting The Links: 10/29/23
Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down We made it back safe & sound from Barcelona on Friday, then spent Saturday in Princeton where I hosted a talk with Patrick...
The Secret Sharer
Keeping up appearances I’ll be interviewing Patrick McDonnell about his new book, The Super Hero’s Journey (Abrams ComicArts), at a live event on Oct. 28 at...
Hitting The Links: 10/22/23
He’s from Barcelona I’m in Barcelona for a trade show this week. We got in yesterday morning, waited ~45 minutes on line at passport control, and got to our...
The Analog Desk
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 559 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. a conversation with Lisa Morton as we celebrate spooky season & the release of...
Hitting The Links: 10/15/23
High Potency I was Dearborn, MI on Thursday & Friday for a client meeting about patient-centricity in drug development & manufacturing. It was a good event,...
OMFG JUBILEE STREET
Podcastery This week, I posted Episode 558 of The Virtual Memories Show, feat. a conversation with legendary cartoonist Daniel Clowes about his amazing,...
Hitting The Links: 10/8/23
Intro Something weird happened at my pharma conference last Thursday-Friday: nothing weird happened. I mean, I know I over-plan, micromanage and stress the...
Challenges & Opportunities
Intro I’ll be heading out in an hour or so for the annual pharma conference I organize, host, and micromanage within an inch of its/my life. The main...
Hitting The Links: 10/1/23
Intro I’m in Columbus, OH for Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC), an annual comics festival co-founded by my late friend Tom Spurgeon. Last year, I came here...
Fast Reading
Intro [As mentioned on Sunday, I’ve decided to do 2 posts a week instead of one: Sunday gets the Link-O-Rama, Current Reading, and Sound Body/Fractured Mind...
Hitting The Links: 9/24/23
Intro [The weekly version of this email was getting WAY long, so I decided to split it in two parts. On Wednesdays (or thereabouts), I’ll send out the email...
BEOTI
Intro “How are you able to DO everything!?” By which they mean holding down a heavy-duty day job while making the podcast (and doing all the related...
Fierce Luigi
Intro In Greek myth, the three-headed dog Cerberus guards the gates of the underworld. When I rang the doorbell of my dying friend last Friday, I was greeted...
Eternal Sunshine of the Tweetless Mind
Intro When I decided to delete my account on Facebook 6+ years ago, I told a pal that staying on it was like saying, “I don’t agree with the politics of Der...
Dead Sirius
Intro On my way back from picking up lunch today, the 1st Wave station on Sirius XM (it came with the car in 2019 & I renew every year) seemed to be...
Cheesecake, Penguins, Bucks
Intro I’d offer up something profound, but this is already a day late & I’ve got advocacy letters & an article to write for work, so instead you get a little...
Read the Label
Intro “I do have a little bit of a habit, yes, hon. You ought to at least give me a few marks for originality.” I’m in much better shape than last week, now...
Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?
Intro Sorry this one is a day late. The week has been rough. Last night, I had some concern I might die in my sleep. On Monday morning, I got diagnosed with...
Laugh Riot
Intro What were you doing on Jan. 6, 2021? I was prepping for a national TV interview about staffing at contract manufacturing organizations that were making...
Afterlifehacks for Ibburim
Intro I’ve never seen The Exorcist. I was 2 when it came out, so it’s understandable I didn’t catch it in the theater. I also somehow never caught it on...
Thank U India, Thank U Providence
Intro For a Virtual guy, I do revel in the analog. I wrote about that a month or so back — the joy I get from my daily postcard habit, mailing out the print-...
Samsonite
Intro Sorry this one’s a day late. I was getting two episodes of the show out this week, plus real work & more medical appts. for Dad. There’s plenty of...
As Is Now
Intro Just because I do the same goddamned things every single morning doesn’t mean I HAVE to do the same goddamned things every morning. It means I LIKE to...
Happy Cancerversary
Intro “Were it to be the lastHow infinite would beWhat we did not suspect was markedOur final interview.”—Emily Dickinson, #1164 Today’s my second...
One More Mailbox
Intro Man, the longest day of the year and I still didn’t make the time to finish this week’s newsletter. I’ve got a lot going on with work, esp. with a...
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...