You may not realize that you’re behaving like a troll without meaning to.

If you and I want readers, and we want eyeballs which pay us, and followers, which help us learn, one of the challenges is to treat Dear Reader with the respect they deserve. Folks might well be drawn to our work because of a title or photo or theme. Within a few sentences, our Dear Author has all too often made some kind of sweeping statement that ends the relationship with Dear Reader. My hope here is to point out how that can happen, and perhaps where it comes from, and how to fix it. …

A gift from my second Covid vaccine. I think.

I was in Lycra. I’m always in Lycra. I was looking down at several different groups of women, all much younger than I was. Their smooth faces looked up at me expectantly. Intuitively I knew they had been formed into teams. I also knew that they had already chosen who was going to be on each of their teams, and I was last. I knew that they were looking at me: my aging, wrinkled face, my body, my reality, and wondering why on earth anyone would want this old person on their team?

If you’re anything like me, you were…

To our friends at Newsbreak:

Yesterday I posted an article in a discussion forum among those of us who write for Medium, and in many cases, also for you. This is what one writer (Bill Abbate) posted:

They (Newsbreak) have suddenly started turning mine down for no apparent reason as well. Same type of articles and quality as I have always sent. They accepted every single one until a few weeks ago. Maybe they are having money issues?

I can’t be the only person who reached out to you more than once for answers. Here’s the issue: we writers talk. And we also make decisions…

This stopped being fun this week. What’s a freelancer to do?

If you’ve looked at, written for or suddenly been deeply confused by the algorithms over at Newsbreak, join the club. After many of us were lured sideways by the generous offer of a grand a month for three months (just write x stories, we’ll take ’em all, well most), more than a few of us are asking what on earth is happening. Sound familiar?

Things were going fine at Newsbreak until this week when two of my more recent stories kept getting denied. I had gotten into a tiff with someone in the customer service area who barked at me…

And why that has anything at all to do with you and me

“He’s still around?”

I nodded. My gym friend shook his head. “Unbelievable,” he said, then went back to his bicep curls. I could see him grinning behind his mask. I was too.

Planet Fitness was jammed this morning. Well, jammed in comparison to what it’s been since we were on lockdown. The energy level was amazing in there. It’s spring, the pollen count around here is horrendous, but we’re in the gym at 6 am pounding it out as the weather report promises us sun every single day this week.

Oh. My. God. Spring. Warmth. Sun.

Why Mick Jagger? What does that have to do with…

It doesn’t take long to cripple ourselves. Just watch.

As in watch TV all day, all night, and see what happens to your spine. Your brain, your organs, your entire body.

Kevin Plummer is my sports chiropractor. At well over six feet and dynamic as hell, he sports the cobbled belly that is the envy of any man. A decathlete in his youth, he competed successfully. That competitive lifestyle is ingrained in his lifelong training habits. Today at 48, he can jump higher, lift more and run faster than he ever did at 20. The same doesn’t go for his younger brother.

While I was on the table yesterday…

If you’re terrified of aging, you’re in good company. Let’s talk.

Dear Reader: this is a journey, as is aging. As with some of my longer pieces, this might be best consumed in chunks, considered and mulled over. Or not, up to you. However, you and I are aging. Will get old, if we luck out. HOW we do that might well depend on how we frame it. To that, read on.

Was it being stuck in quarantine? Was it too many close inspections in the bathroom mirror? Was it a come home to mama talk with ourselves when we fell in kitchen?

Or did we read an article on Medium…

Shakespeare was right.

I recently got into a bit of trouble with one of my more respected commenters for having a rather spicy say about a post that, for my reading dollar, was about as negative and depressing a piece of writing as I have even fallen into on Medium. I continue to be unapologetic about it for one simple reason: even after returning to that piece, I still couldn’t find anything positive about it.

She was wallowing in being SO OLD at 51. Look. Those of you who know my writing, know how I feel about such pap. And while my commenter…