I’m a writer located just outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. My wife and I lived and worked in New York City and environs for 30 years before moving here to pursue a “simpler” lifestyle. It didn’t turn out that way.

More on that here.

My work falls into three areas: magazine profiles, a running blog with ongoing life reportage, and abbreviated chapters of my upcoming book, a “how-not-to” retirement guide. The book is wryly amusing (I’d like to think), based on my years working in financial services public relations and the stories of people I’ve met in my new life here including an Academy Award winner (Best Documentary, 1992), the former managing editor of High Times, and the keepers of the world’s largest collection of American Folk Art Buildings (really tiny houses).

It broadens out to look at how the introduction of the 401(k) plan transformed retirement for millions of Americans (for good and bad) and to examine what the retirement crisis means for all of us. Give it a read. Let me know what you think.

Business Profiles

“It gives the impression that he’s planning for a quick getaway, and possibly he is: as the public face for much of the effort to reclaim the $2.5 million Silent Sam settlement from the Sons of Confederate Veterans (SCV) he’s made more than a few people unhappy.”

Walk towards the light.

My father had collection of old Damon Runyon books he loaned to me when I was in my twenties. I, of course, promptly lost them all. Still, I’ve made good use over the years of some of Runyon’s best lines, a personal favorite being his punter’s paraphrase of Ecclesiastes.  Said the Broadway bard, “The race may not always be to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, but that’s the way to bet.”

“You may ask yourself, how did I get here?”

- David Byrne

The first few weeks were eye-opening. It was mind-bogglingly quiet, especially for someone used to commuting to New York. It was dark at night, really dark.  There were noises out there in the woods.