David Letterman, noting Yoko Ono’s 78th birthday last week, joked that she celebrated by breaking up The Jonas Brothers. Back in the twilight of sixties, perhaps early seventies, a much-appreciated Christmas gift (namely for my older brother Craig but which the rest of us took full advantage of) was a record player. Not just any [...]
“I brought a book I think you’ll find interesting,” my cousin said as we sat down for lunch recently, handing me a paperback copy of The Shack by Wm. Paul Young. I believe, now having read it, that she might have been nudged to give me this book because she knows, perhaps as much as [...]
A & P, the Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, is being ahem reorganized. The company’s Chapter 11 filing today is juxtaposed in my mind closer to Chapter 1 of my life. The biting cold wind of this mid-December day reminds me of the A & P of my childhood. (You might have read a [...]
I cannot remember a time when music was not a vital part of my life. Music is in my genes, especially from my mother’s side of the family, with my grandparents having been matched up in the early 1920s as a violinist/fiddler being accompanied by his pianist. What I wouldn’t give for a cell-phone video [...]
I’m home from picking up prescription refills to paint a story-picture. Note to self (the umpteenth): always, always carry a pen and paper! Having dropped off written prescriptions for repeats of my head meds, I walk briskly in the fresh cold wind over to the Cabbagetown location of Buckstars to wait. A grande Americano should [...]
I know I’ve been on worse lists! Top 50 Blogs About HIV and AIDS
By “ambulance chasers” I mean media who wish they could report on the illness, the meds, a cure and some drama all in about 52 seconds. And they try. This year, rather than run to the annual UNAIDS report on HIV prevalence (good news and bad news as usual), I invested some emotional energy in [...]
These days I still only started to think about trying to get a meal in my stomach once an almost painful hunger came upon me, seemingly out of nowhere, on this occasion at about three in the afternoon. I had just been to Sunnybrook Hospital where I was part of a clinical trial combining AZT [...]
Each writer in this series has generously given me permission to post their work. The views and experiences shared are their own. Where applicable, links will also be provided at the end of the piece. The best thing that I can say about Kim at this point is that she blessed the world with her [...]
Each author in this series has generously given me permission to post their work. The views and experiences shared are their own. Where applicable, links will also be provided at the end of the piece. AIDS didn’t become important to me until somebody I knew died. I imagine that is also the case for most [...]
I like visiting cemeteries, at least on those occasions when I am not there in mourning. ‘Twas ever thus, be it the Protestant cemetery two blocks from our church in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Elmwood Cemetery in Perth where several Chaplins (and even an older, related “Chaplain”) are buried and, much more often recently, Scotch Line Cemetery on [...]
I was quick to post this link to Facebook yesterday from a website in Princeton which featured an interview-by-email with me on the subject of blogging about HIV/AIDS. Shruti Kalra, the writer of the piece, first contacted me early in the year, wondering a few things about me and this blog, and I wasn’t long agreeing [...]
