My Daddy’s first set of toy soldiers was a plastic set of toy soldiers made by Britains LTD to be found under the Christmas tree by young British boys. It had somehow made it to an early Sears and Roebuck brick-and-mortar store in Saugus, Mass.
Route 1 to the north of Boston made the region north of Boston more accessible. I remember going there at first to visit the Saugus Ironworks Restoration — monument to the heroic and (historically, at least) physically demanding work of manufacturing. Read more on Daddy’s Toy Soldiers…
Filed under Family, Memory, News by on Feb 22nd, 2019. Comment. 
Their day started later than mine. The three of them would descend to the street from their apartment above.
First was Lois Bouchex, a handome older graying statesman, who looked pretty banal at 11 am, but in the dark of the evening looked practically British, with his smoking-jacket, silk ascot, and carefully waxed moustache. Read more on The Restaurant On Rue Leon Blum…
Filed under Doctors, life, News by on Feb 11th, 2019. Comment.
The show is “Hot Topics.” I do not know the personalities of the folks on the oversized screen of this breakfast room where we happen to be staying. They throw around the names of celebrities I never heard of and they tell their intimate family lives painting in broad strokes without any testimonial evidence. A “gossip” show, my mother would have called it.
My mother would have turned such shows off on the television. My grandmother of blessed memory, my “Bobie,” would have turned the channel back to the gossip show, and commented how my Mother, who seemed to think she was head of the household, ran the place in a way similar to Adolf Hitler. Read more on Estelle is Magically Stuck Watching Television…
Filed under culture, Family, Fashion, life, Memory, Mental Illness, News by on Feb 8th, 2019. Comment.
If you enjoy my memories of when I struck out on my own to France to attend medical school — an innocent abroad — you might want to read other entries on my Facebook page.
In this episode, after arriving in the small city of Amiens, I finally make it to the quartier de la rue Leon Blum where I would lodge. Read more on A Student Settles In…
t was an ordinary weekday in August. I had registered at the medical school in the morning. Walked around downtown a little (I was a powerful walker in those days).
I walked to the synagogue, not knowing if I would find anyone From the history in Wikipedia, the long tradition of the synagogue of Amiens is immortalized for all time. Read more on My First Day In Amiens…
Filed under Family, life, News by on Jan 23rd, 2019. Comment.
She was one of the regulars at Mme. Mareschal’s Cafe “les Arcades.” She took a hot cocoa on the morning of each market day — Thursdays and Saturdays and even Mondays. She had one of the best placements in market, just across the street from the street perpendicular to the rue Leon Blum. I gave some of her mentholated honey candies to a girlfriend in my medical school class for her birthday. She found them exotic, like me.
“Wow, those candies are like a high or something. I mean, they could clean your fingernails. ” Read more on When You Are Not Pretty Enough…
Filed under Family, life, News by on Jan 17th, 2019. Comment.
It was August or so of 1973 when I traveled first to Amiens.
I had known I would never go to medical school in Paris. It seemed to me tradesmen striking was a sort of French National Pastime.
I decided to visit as many as needed of the official government medical schools and register. The cost was minimal and I had to pick the best, because my school’s heritage would be associated with me for the rest of my life. Read more on My Introduction To France And Locating My Medical School…
Filed under medicine, News by on Jan 4th, 2019. Comment.
Medical school in France was very cheap and open to anyone who wanted to enroll — at least for the first year. Only those who scored highest on year-end exams were allowed to continue to 2nd year.
Over 600 hopeful students enrolled that first year — but I worked extra hard and placed 38th. Only about a hundred were admitted. I was in!
Soon after I passed the “elimination contest” that was meant to let those of us who had scored best (and were allegedly the smartest) continue with the business of medical school. We had to get down to the business of learning things that we would need to function as doctors. Read more on My Training As A French Country Doctor…
This piece in Reform Judaism really touched me.
Unike my grandmother of blessed memory, who had to escape the Russian revolution and come to the states for the freedom to practice the rituals of her faith openly, I have not been openly physically punished for being Jewish. I certainly have been discriminated against for being Jewish. Read more on It Is OK To Be A Jew At Christmas…
Filed under Family, Government, News, politics, Religion, Religion and Politics by on Dec 29th, 2018. Comment.
She had been one of the angriest patients I had ever seen. Yelling and screaming so much and walking out of my office so often that I had figured she was out of my practice.
She had been traumatized — not only raped, but abused in other ways — which she had been unable to detail.
Her husband had brought her back, and I gave her a little bit of medicine, slowly, then, I had been finally able to speak with her directly. Read more on Kindness Can Cure, Too…
Filed under abuse, depression, Doctors, Family, life, News by on Dec 27th, 2018. Comment.