I was in San Francisco for a seminar when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The day after receiving the call, I remember riding across the Golden Gate Bridge on the bus back to the airport. I was still in shock, and felt like one might after a major breakup, or someone’s unexpected death – splayed, raw, hoping no one notices my exposed innards. I was sitting on the left side of the bus and staring out at the water when I had what I’ll call a vision (because it was not intentional like...
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I sometimes freelance for the Wall Street Journal’s entertainment blog, Speakeasy. Today I was assigned to begin a weekly episode recap of the Emmy-award winning AMC show “Breaking Bad.” The show follows Walter White, a chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with Stage III lung cancer and told he has two years left to live. The series explores how a fatal diagnosis like this releases a typical man from the daily concerns and constraints of normal society and follows his transformation from mild family man to a kingpin of the drug trade. Of all the...
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My sister Sharon and her husband Milan bought a fixer-upper in New Jersey last summer. I’m not talking about a house in need of paint and new carpets. Have you seen the ’80s movie The Money Pit with Tom Hanks? It’s more along those lines. They’ve been living in two rooms of their house for months now while Milan skillfully and passionately renovates it himself. His plan was to start with the kids’ bedrooms upstairs, so that they had their space as soon as possible. The first step was to fix the crooked floors....
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