For the love of books

Written by Joe Pisani
Thursday, 19 November 2009 00:00

Maybe because I have thousands of books stored in a barn in New Hampshire, or maybe because I have hundreds more at home, piled on the floor and stacked perilously high on my nightstand about to topple, or maybe because I just wanted to be cool, I did the unthinkable — at least the “unthinkable” for a dinosaur who loves the smell and feel of paper.

E-mail avalanche

Written by Joe Pisani
Thursday, 12 November 2009 00:00

While I was waiting in line at the information desk of Barnes and Noble, a clerk told the woman in front of me, “I’ll contact you when the book comes in. What’s your e-mail address?”

The God debate

Written by Joe Pisani
Thursday, 05 November 2009 00:00

At the entrance to the bookstore, larger than life, was a display for a new book by celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins — the Jerry Seinfeld of nonbelievers and author of such controversial works as The God Delusion.

Kindness is catching

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 28 October 2009 23:00

A friend of mine who grew up in Greenwich and lives in Fairfield married a girl from the Valley, so he’s seen much of the civilized world as we know it. But when he traveled to Vermont recently, he stepped into another dimension. It was not the civilized world — as we know it.

A dying breed

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 23:00

Every day after dropping his wife off at the train station, a middle-aged man drives his Audi to the end of the parking lot, opens the trunk and pulls out a concealed pack of cigarettes. It sure looks like something sinister is going on.

Entitled enclaves

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 14 October 2009 23:00

Something I hear a lot, from Greenwich to the Valley, from New Canaan to Milford, from privileged enclaves to middle-class neighborhoods, and from flustered parents complaining about their kids, is the word “entitlement.”

Surviving in suburbia

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 23:00

While I was wandering through the airport terminal, three hours early for my flight from Columbus, Ohio, to LaGuardia, I stopped at the newsstand for a book of sudoku to keep my middle-aged brain functioning at peak performance.

What caught my eye, however, was a magazine cover that proclaimed, “How to Survive (almost) ANYTHING” — the “anything” being everything from a tsunami to the swine flu pandemic, to an avalanche, to a drought and various other “unthinkable scenarios.” Be prepared, as the Boy Scouts say.

Talk is cheap... and unhealthy

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 30 September 2009 23:00

Every night at the dinner table after a long day of work, I’m forced to listen to my family discuss health care reform in excruciating detail.

It’s worse than talk radio. At least I can turn that off. Sad to say, we often end the evening sputtering and stammering and insulting one another.

Getting better?

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 23 September 2009 23:00

Every so often, there’s a season we want to forget because it was so miserable. But bad memories never die.

All in the attitude

Written by Joe Pisani
Wednesday, 16 September 2009 23:00

Every afternoon when I pass through the cavernous corridors of Grand Central, I come upon a middle-aged man in a wheelchair pushed up against the wall, his New York Post across his lap as he stares at the pedestrian traffic passing by.