Search for Best Sandwich in Tampa Bay (#2) Next! The second tasting is the Montreal Beef Sandwich at Dunedin Smokehouse. I had a difficult time finding a place in Tampa Bay that had this sandwich and to my surprise and delight, it was literally in my hometown. Thanks to my neighbor Charlie Flately for reading…

I was the first person in my family to graduate high school. As I prepared for that momentous day, the guidance counselor (whom I had never met) summoned me to her office. She told me I had made the highest grade on the American College Test in the school’s history. I was then given two…

I have been too many things to count. I have been a twinkle in the eye of a sixteen-year-old boy. I have been a sperm fast and true and thus a firstborn. I have been dirt poor and filthy rich. I have eaten moldy bread and field peas for days on end in Appalachia and…

 Family is NOT everything. That is sentimental bullshit. But family is something. For many of us, today is filled with nostalgic memories of a gentler, kinder time—of family members once dear to us now lost to death, divorce, or estrangement. Memories of a life without the coronavirus and a Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade with real…

Lipton was famous for these ten interview questions on Inside the Actors Studio. He always asked the same ten questions to the nearly 300 guests who appeared on the show. I posed them to Gina during cocktail hour last night. As we discussed them I also asked her how she would have answered them at…

It is impossible to overstate the cost of leaving the Christian faith. Departing my belief system has been devastating. Almost ten years later, I still experience intense anger and inception-like dreams about the abuse of growing up in a world of lies. I feel robbed of a normal childhood and was deprived of accurate information….

The past year has been the most enjoyable of my life. This despite the political chaos, the pandemic, the care of an elderly parent, and continued estrangement from my children and grandchildren. It begs the question, why? It was nine years ago this week when the cataclysmic events of life choices drove Gina and me…

I’ve never been one to shy away from controversy and candid observations, so here goes. And I enjoy the freedom of having broken the chains of family, cultural, and religious censorship—so I can honestly and publicly say whatever I feel. Imagine that! For the first time in my life, I am fortunate to be able…

This is not an experience for kids. It’s for adults. Particularly those of us lucky enough to have survived the first part of life. For much of human history—and still in most of the world today—people of our age were usually dead. But today’s increasing life expectancy gives us more adult years in the second…

I remember crying and running from the room as the small black and white television in my grandmother’s home beamed a fuzzy rendition of men beating each other to a pulp on “Live Wrestling.” The year was around 1963 and I was five years old. My Dad (a gentle man) and my grandfather (a brawler…

In the past three decades over five million white adults have left the church. These stark numbers come from recent surveys by Pew and National Opinion Research. Five million. Evangelicals have represented a huge majority of the American population throughout history and in 1991, white Christians constituted about 75% of all adults. But in three…

We live in a chaotic world. America had 251 mass shootings (in which four or more people were shot) in the first 216 days of 2019. During our leisure time, not counting work, each of us processes 34 gigabytes, or 100,000 words, every day. The world’s 21,274 television stations produce 85,000 hours of original programming…

The greatest things in the world can often disguise themselves as the worst things in the world. Which is why, when I walked away from the vaunted stage at The People’s Church, I was presented with a gift cloaked as a turd. In 2006 as a 46-year-old I decided to retire. The news was shocking…

Gina and I have made the difficult decision to sell BeauChamp Farm. We have fallen in love with our little beach cottage and community in Florida and have decided to make it our primary residence. If you wish to know more, I have detailed this personal journey and the reasons for the move in my…