Author Archives: 34orion

  It is early afternoon on Thursday July 12, 2012. It is a hot humid summer’s day. The type of day weather forecasters like to warn you to drink plenty of fluids, put on copious amounts of sunscreen, and not … Continue reading →

  Last night I dreamt I was at “big” Kings on old Rt. 24 in Short Hills. It is a supermarket that I know so well that I can put together a shopping list on an aisle by aisle basis. … Continue reading →

Mark Twain was fond of saying “There are three types of lies. Lies, damned lies, and statistics.” I was thinking about that particular quote while reading The New York Times this morning. I had just read an article by  Michael … Continue reading →

  The sign above the gate read “Arbeit Mach Frei.” It was May 12, 2011 and I found myself literally staring at the gates of hell. The entrance to the most notorious of all the Nazi Death Camps: Auschwitz-Birkenau. Being … Continue reading →

  After processing at Ellis Island, they were greeted at the New York City docks by Marcus’s brother Max in his new 1939 Cadillac Fleetwood. I am sure there was a lot of back slapping and hugging involved in that … Continue reading →

  The new family settled into a small apartment at 48 Ottokringerstrasse. The apartment had only two rooms. A kitchen that had no refrigerator except for the ledge outside the window and also doubled as a bedroom for Ernst and … Continue reading →

  As the European powers, interlocked through a series of secret and not so secret alliances, blundered towards war, Marcus’s reserve status was cancelled and he was recalled, along with millions of others to active duty. It is highly likely … Continue reading →

There are moments in your life where your perception about an event, situation, or person changes so quickly it like glass shattering. Your perception of those things irreconcilably different and forever changed. Often it is the moment where you move … Continue reading →

My father did not understand. We had traveled 4,500 miles to the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska from our home in New York City and I was preparing to go out on a long run. He wondered “Why, with all the … Continue reading →

  The procedure was done the next day. I held her hand as we escorted her to the Laparoscopic Lab, deep in the bowels of the hospital, where the surgery was to take place.  A nurse showed me to an … Continue reading →