Blue Point Brewing, a Long Island brewery owned by Anheuser-Busch as a flagship, test market targeting younger customers, including hipsters and millennials, is now selling bubble gum flavored beer. Bad idea. This is akin to cotton candy flavored vaping. What next? Candy cigarettes? Oh, I forgot; they have been doing that since I was a kid 50 years ago. But candy cigarettes are not drugs. Alcohol and nicotine are. In December, 2018, the Surgeon General declared e cigarette use among... Read more

On Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts did a live television broadcast that ended with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis, including the words, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face... Read more

Having never once been taken to a church or other house of faith until I was 34, I was tremendously attracted to this tradition of walking on water; surviving in the wilderness against all odds; finding a way out of no-way-out; discovering a God who could do for us what we could not do for ourselves; seeing presumably dead people come back to life ~ all while leaving stories in our sacred texts about what horrors we can sometimes be... Read more

“Care for a mocktail?” “A what?” I asked. “A cocktail with no alcohol. The one I like is made of Jamaican allspice, grapefruit juice, lemon peel, cardamom (from the ginger family), a bit of cascarilla (used for cleansing, protection and banishing of negative energies) and a splash of seltzer.” There is a rapidly growing, national trend in people who prefer to meet, drink, dance and have fun in places that do not serve alcohol. These people are not necessarily alcoholics.... Read more

It has taken me 25 years to write it; but here is my sermon, in its entirety, for Trinity Sunday this coming Sunday at the Congregational Church of Patchogue. Father, Son, Holy Spirit; Creator, Comforter, Sustainer; Past, Present, Future; Pre-Addiction, Addiction, Recovery; Sun, Moon, Stars; Male, Female, Non-Binary; Republican, Democrat; Non-Affiliated; Love, Hate, Indifference; Space, Time, Energy; Beginning, Middle End; Birth; Life, Death; Around and around as we orbit each other; and despite all our individual and collective insights and... Read more

WHAT A MISTAKE it would be to hang-out only with people my age or younger. I visit Evelyn a couple of times a month. I always leave refreshed, inspired, educated, humored and challenged. Evelyn is special, but not unique in my life. She is well-cared for by her family, but I have sat in the presence of many elders who are warehoused in facilities, languishing in loneliness; their wisdom & experience sitting like dusty books on shelves, waiting to be... Read more

I AM NO FAN OF WAR, but June 6th is the 75th Anniversary of D-Day, that was instrumental in the liberation of Western Europe from the evil grip of Nazi control. In a world where an evil ideology was gaining force, and its adherents were addicted to madness, hatred and control ~ this resistance was bloody, painful and necessary. My mother’s first husband died ~ was slaughtered, actually ~ in the water, storming Omaha Beach at Normandy, France. He never... Read more

Tom Petty was born in 1950 and died 66 years later in 2017; having earned three Grammy Awards and having been recognized as a generous and compassionate person eager to help others less fortunate than himself. But, unfortunately, Tom Petty passed away from a fatal overdose of fentanyl, oxycodone, generic Xanax, antidepressant medication, and a sleep aid in his system that resulted in multiple organ failure. And so, in addition to his legacy of spirituality, artistry, compassion, generosity and love... Read more

In the year 2,000, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) declared that measles has been eliminated. In 2019, we are experiencing the highest number of measles cases in 25 years. Medicare does not cover measles immunization or the blood test to determine immunity. I called a national blood diagnostic company and asked the cost of the measles vaccine. They said I must first provide the “test code” from my physician. Thirty minutes later, I gave them the code. The vaccine... Read more

Let’s get the bunny-and-jelly-bean thing out of the way. Long before I became a Christian at the age of 43, I was a firm believer in Easter, as I knew it. I loved hollow, chocolate, Easter bunnies. I loved jelly beans. I loved the woven, wooden, wicker baskets stuffed with colorful, artificial grass. I was not so taken with the hard-boiled eggs, but I loved the colorful, dyed shells. I also loved the joy in the faces of children at... Read more