Hey ,When I was a kid, I was not particularly athletic. I was born chubby (ten pounds, six ounces) and stayed chubby for quite a while. I was a bit of a pudge. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, but when one of the kids in the neighborhood nick...

Hey ,Ten days ago I came home to find that one of our dogs had bitten the other. I didn’t even know what was wrong at first except that Mikey (the dog) was in pain and couldn’t put any weight on his front leg.It was a Sunday evening and the problem w...

NOTE: I had a technical problem with my email list thingy and so I'm doing a controlled re-send of yesterday's Mickey Picayune. If this is a repeat then please accept my apologies. Otherwise, I'm really tickled you joined the Mickey Picayune! --micke...

Hey ,We were latchkey kids starting in 1970, when our mom returned to the workforce and we walked home from school on our own. It was a quiet, safe suburb. The biggest risk was in cutting across the lawn of an older neighbor who hated kids stepping o...

Hey ,I’m playing in a pickleball tournament this weekend and I’m in that phase where I think I might win, and I also think I might get my ass handed to me eight times over. It’s like Schrödinger’s thought experiment about the cat in a box. Is the cat...

Hey ,The past two weeks have been chaotic with house guests, dog sitting, and diarrhea. I don’t regret any of it but there’s certainly a calming bit of gratitude when it’s over and a familiar routine returns.One of the dogs we watched has a condition...

Hey ,When I got my cancer diagnosis and opted for surgery, I entertained thoughts that this could be it. My optimistic self thought, “This will be a bumpy ride.” But my pessimistic self understood that any surgery has risks. Joan Rivers, for example....

Hey ,When I was nine, the city built an ice rink and I wanted to learn to skate. My father bought us some cheap skates and I walked up there every day after school so I could fall on my ass.I clung to the railing on the wall and pulled myself along,...

Hey ,I have a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT in today’s Picayune about my future. But first, a bit of background.Thanks to my cancer and surgery, I’ve had way too much time to think of existential issues lately. There are the practical things, like how it hurts...

Hey ,When I first went to the Moth to tell stories, back in 2017, one of the regulars there was a woman around my age who consistently told moving stories and told them well. She was naturally funny and got lots of laughs. The crowd and the judges lo...