November 5, 2005 I received disturbing news this summer and I am still trying to sort it out. According to Dr. James Dobson, of “tough love” fame, I should be a homosexual. Certainly all that I feel and know about myself tells me that I am not. I really, really like women, and one in […]

As one who loves movies, I cherish my memory of the first, and only, feature film in Smell-O-Vision. Scent of Mystery was produced by Michael Todd Jr., a young man who gambled his legacy on a film that would go beyond sight and sound to engage the sense of smell. In the 1950s, movie theaters […]

September 14, 2005 Laurie sees woodchucks. We’ll be motoring along the Thruway and she’ll say, “Look, Kihm, a woodchuck.” I’ll look, and there’s no woodchuck. For years, I have accepted the explanation that Laurie has a keen eye and I am slow-witted. But recently, I’ve begun to think there may be another possibility. Maybe she’s […]

Friends help you move. In 1980, Laurie and I married and moved two households into one. All three households were on the second floor, which says a lot for those who chose to help. Chris Zenowich was one such worthy, a friend indeed. Because he was male and passably brawny, he was chosen to help […]

December 14, 2008 My mind doesn’t always wander. Sometimes it flits. Like the Sunday I was in some zone and came back to reality just in time to hear our Assistant Rector, the Rev. Margaret Bates, say, “…according to your commando, father.” This caught me off guard. Who in the Bible had a commando? I […]

:: Cruelty :: In recalling Junior High School, I remember mostly our cruelty. We were seventh grade boys whose reading matter leaned towards war and torture. We were fired up on testosterone — a new drug we did not handle well — and felt the rush of freedom as we were actually allowed into the […]

In the earliest days of Rock & Roll music, even before it was called Rock & Roll, I was blessed with a brother who was five years older than myself. Growing up in a suburb of Buffalo, we shared a small room, with a radio on the table between our beds. At bedtime, I wanted […]

The son of a German father and a French mother, Peter DeWein was working as an apprentice tinsmith in Buffalo, N.Y., when the Civil War started. He did not enlist. He was 16 years old; I don’t even know if English was spoken at home; perhaps the war seemed far away, in many ways. But […]