Spending some time at Mayo, much of it ordinary, waiting, listening, doing as told, but some of it primal, such as the CAT scan in which I lay on a narrow platform, hands over my...

Life comes in focus as the day approaches It’s odd how a man facing heart surgery hears from friends who seem to have more on their minds than they’re willing to say. “How are...

When an old man prepares for open-heart surgery, he maintains a confident demeanor and so does his good wife. He has an excellent surgeon and the procedure has been around since...

A beautiful summer day, sitting on a porch in Connecticut, looking at boats anchored in the cove, grateful that I don’t own one. It’s one foolishness I’ve avoided in my life:...

I have it on good authority that we now have 26 sets of personal pronouns available in English, including the gender-neutral zie, zim, zer, zis, zieself, and I expect there will...

The words you use say a lot about you. It’s obvious. If you say 'utilise' instead of use, or 'facilitate' instead of do or make, you’re sending out a signal to the world,...

I once knew a librarian who at age 34 fell in love with a poet she met in a bar who, though sober, announced that he adored her. For years she’d only dated men who were looking...

Like the recording artists of old, Big Pharma is on the production treadmill. Stockbroking analysts are like rock stars. It’s not only the late nights they put in, it’s in their...