The Europeans
Our family lost pretty much everyone in Europe during the Holocaust. A couple of folks had made it to Israel. Three people survived in the camps and returned to Prague. Emil Spitzer, his wife, and his nephew Karl Unger. Karl has appeared in some histories of the Holocaust. I have an original letter after the […]
Thrill Hill
“We’re going to have Fun, Fun, Fun Till our Daddy takes the T-bird away!!!” I HAD a T-bird when I was young. There was a road in Coconut Grove in Miami so steep that if you drove on it very fast, when it dropped off, your car would literally leave the ground and come crashing […]
Gatlinburg – The Tourist Trap of the Great Smoky Mountains and an Exciting Botanical discovery
A friend was telling me about taking her son to Gatlinburg for a vacation when he was twelve. In the summer of 1973, I hitched north to Boston to rent my apartment for graduate school. A friend from FSU anthropology was a ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains that summer. I hitched up I-75 and […]
Doctor Who
I have been a fan of Doctor Who since the 1970s, practically from the beginning. Just like Star Trek, it is stunning how much more sophisticated the production values became over the years. They say that your first doctor is always your favorite. Not quite in my case. My favorite was Tom Baker. My first […]
One of the Greatest Evils of Modern Chemistry
Expanded polystyrene (EPS), commonly known as styrofoam, doesn’t degrade or break down over time. This post has been prompted by something that just happened in my doctor’s office while getting a diagnostic test (I’m OK, in fact I’m in great shape and relieved by the test results. The screening test is a good idea. I’ll […]
Travels with Phil Six – The Flatiron Building – NYC
It has been called “one of the world’s most iconic skyscrapers and a quintessential symbol of New York City”. It anchors the south (downtown) end of Madison Square and the north (uptown) end of the Ladies’ Mile Historic District. The neighborhood around it is called the Flatiron District after its signature, iconic building. The building was designated a New York […]
Mr. Ledoux and Theosophy
I went to high school in the 60s. Flower power, psychedelics, exploring other ways of living, thinking and experiencing the universe. Interest in eastern mysticism was huge! My friends and I threw the I Ching. I still have my copy. I owned a copy of the Tibetan Book of the Dead and practiced chanting the […]
I Don’t Think I Am In South Florida Anymore, Am I Toto?
The research team I was part of in the Everglades monitored the buildup of pesticide residues in the environment. I suggested we get samples from Taylor Slough. Everglades National Park surrounded a section of land called The Hole in the Doughnut. This was farmland which, as a compromise when the park was created in 1947, […]
The Gorilla
My mother Silvia was very sensitive about what other people thought. She was easily humiliated. When I was a little kid the Bronx Zoo got a gorilla. This was a rare in those days. She took me north on the subway from Brooklyn to go see it. A Chassid got on the train a stop […]
Central City
Among other disciplines, I studied Botany. I have taught courses on Edible Wild Plants and Field Botanical Taxonomy, or how to use botanical keys to identify plants. The North Florida panhandle is the only place in the United Sates that has ALL genera of carnivorous plants. My favorite place to see them and other native […]