“Manny Albam was a terrific musician, composer, arranger, teacher and, best of all, a warm, funny human being and friend. I first met Manny when I was in high school in Rochester, New…

“A few years after seeing the film for the first time, I adapted the line from Inigo Montoya to fit my own narrative, and reflect my own dire conclusions: ‘Hello, my name is…

“As children grew, what did I need? I needed a man who rushed home from a rehearsal with not just a clarinet in his musician’s backpack, but buckets of Kentucky Fried Chicken (no,…

“It’s been so long since I’ve been anywhere beyond my own backyard(s)—Athens and Andros—that I’m beginning to feel a nagging wanderlust. All the fuss involved in going abroad doesn’t tempt me, but how…

“Though I expect Ingrid will deny it, I married a mensch. I had suspected it all along from the empathetic way she acted around animals and children, but my suspicions were confirmed when we…

“If you believe you can overcome the impending collapse of global food production, welcome to Club Naiveté. I, too, used to believe I simply needed to grow and store my own food to…

“When the weather turns left I’ll turn into it,/reaching for washouts with my inherited pedipalps,/wagering grapeshot precision I can get home/before lightning thumbtacks me to the palisades./My middle game has never been that…

“During the 1970s, Conte hooked up with another of his Kenton alumni, the incomparable trombonist Frank Rosolino. The pair made several albums together and the RCA LP ‘Conversation,’ recorded in Milan, Italy on…

“Now in my ‘golden years,’ with three grown sons, I’ve been wondering what to do with my old diaries. I began keeping a diary (in writer-speak ‘journaling’), when I received my very first…

“Is it any wonder we are becoming fatalists, resigned to living in the impenetrable dark? I admit to feeling helpless, despondent and, at times, numb. Waves of depression and faithlessness wash over me,…