The Writer as Garden Keeper
About ten days ago (the days run together and always too fast), my wife watched as I planted the first tomato plants. Here in Colorado, our seasons are far too short to start most plants from seed. I buy the smallest seedlings the way a garden keeper should. There is no advantage to buying large, […]
Our First Medical Director
Our original EMS Paramedic class consisted, as I recall, of 32 students. We were each street hardened, having served the City of New York as EMTs for an average range of 18-months to 36-months. EMT-1 is the basic level of emergency care for ambulance crews, EMT-4 is the paramedic level. Without doling out too much […]
A Blog Life of Its Own
Every time you win, it diminishes the fear a little bit. You never really cancel the fear of losing; you keep challenging it. — Arthur Ashe My last post (which I thought was at least semi-brilliant), was lost in a mid-WIFI cycle at Starbucks. Fortunately, the coffee was still good. So, I sat down to […]
The Old Men of the Wing Chun Class
Three days a week (actually, one morning and two evenings) I make a 12-mile trip to an unremarkable business park in Centennial, Colorado. The dojo space is simple and not very large: a scuffed, painted concrete floor, dingy white walls covered with a variety of plaques, Asian-inspired pictures, portraits of Wing Chun masters and official […]
The Last Class of Jacobi Medical Center
We graduated from Jacobi Hospital #paramedic school in August 1985, the same month and year that Roy Harold Scherer Jr. (aka Rock Hudson) announced his #AIDS diagnosis. He held onto his secret for so long, that by October 2, 1985, he was gone. It was to be the last class to graduate from Jacobi. Thirty-seven […]
Covid was not HIV
When I was in the process of writing “The Sea of Peroxide,” my recent title on my experiences as a New York City Paramedic during the AIDS crisis, I would occasionally encounter people who would ask, “Why are you writing about a disease that happened all those years ago? You should be talking about Covid-19.” […]
Monday Morning Ethics, and My Friend, Chuck Gallagher
On this writing journey, I have had my share of low’s as well as high’s. I have learned from both. I did not expect much when I first encountered Chuck through a website that matched writers with business leaders and speakers. Chuck is a very busy guy (and one of America’s leading experts on ethics). […]
When Will “We” Fight Back?
The man you see pulling the old-school gurney up a NYC transit ramp was Paramedic Richard McAllen, an EMS Paramedic who started on the job in the early 1970s. Rich graduated Jacobi Hospital’s first paramedic class in 1974. Ironically, I was in the last class in 1984. Rich would be considered a dinosaur by today’s […]
The Sea of Peroxide: A Paramedic’s Journey Through The Dawn of The AIDS Crisis in New York City
As I write this reflection, my new book has been available for about a week. I am still in a sort of post writing shock. It is a memoir and cut close to my soul. I have been asked how I remembered so much in the way of specific detail; for example, the color of […]