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LAST POST BEFORE 2023 WRAPS

This is my last post? No, not THAT last post, just the last of the year. Has 2023 been good to you, or is it leaving with a Last Post wish? “Eternity Now?” Why not step into 2024 with a moonrise like the one up there ^ ?

BEACH MUSIC BY PAT CONROY, A REVIEW

Beach Music sat in my TBR pile for years while I passed by. At over 700 pages it intimidated me. I like novels around 200-250 pages. The Great Gatsby clocks in at 208 paged; Catcher In The Rye runs 234 pages, more or less. Beach Music at 800 pages? I got a Harry Potter vibe […]

MEDICATION SAFETY, HEALTH INSURANCE, SECOND OPINIONS

Medication safety is the theme on World Patient Safety Day, 2022. It’s been on my mind since an event a few years back. In those days I was dealing with a cancer diagnosis and heading for the first of three chemo dates. My wife drove while I called the insurance company for a final approval.

MESSY MIDDLE FROM WHERE YOU START TO WHERE YOU FINISH

The messy middle waits for people in transition, just like writers in the dangerous second act. Sometimes it drags out over a lifetime, sometimes a day. The difference is awareness. It’s the messy middle. The middle is always messy. From a story perspective lets take The Great Gatsby for the first example.

COMMON MISTAKES AND MISUNDERSTANDINGS, OR POOR JUDGEMENT

Common mistakes are the easiest to fix: do this instead of that. All good. Unless it’s a clue to a greater problem.

WHAT’S SO GREAT ABOUT JAY GATSBY?

The Great Gatsby patrols the modern world with Jay Gatsby walking point. (Just finished Hemingway’s Movable Feast. Scott Fitzgerald came in at the end. He and Papa were buddies in Paris before Zelda slipped a gear. In 2011 Paula McLaine wrote a novel called The Paris Wife about the same time. Read both books for […]

MUHAMMAD ALI, BEN AFFLECK BATMAN, GATSBY PTSD GUIDED BOOMERPDX IN 2015

What would the Gatsby PTSD, Ben Affleck Batman, and Muhammad Ali do? 2015 has been a rough year. How rough? Lemme tell ya, (loosens tie, stretches neck.) When BoomerPDX began I reviewed a feature length documentary. Suddenly I’m an expert on something I don’t know much about, apart from one doc. I was pulling traffic […]