Mort Maimon

Two years ago, checking out condos before returning to live in Philadelphia, we became especially interested in one having many features...

I won’t define my sense of what hypocrisy is here, but I’ll end the piece with a prime example of it. The road to that unseemly quality...

A few months ago, when somebody introduced me to the word game called Wordle, I embraced it the way many Republicans fall head over heels...

Among its features, Philadelphia has cultivated awareness of nature by naming major streets “Chestnut,” “Walnut,” “Spruce,” and “Pine.”...

Sports jackets are meant to be worn, not exiled permanently to the bleak interior of an unexplored closet. In those more social,...

In stressful times, we tend to recall fondly the “old days.” Those reminiscences are meant to contrast placid then with troubled now....

For as long as I can remember, I’ve tried to invent distractions to spice up some of the boring, repetitive activities of life. Usually,...

Performing rituals, particularly harmless and generally unimportant ones, has the power to assure us of life’s continuity. When we repeat...

We had a little ritual. Sometimes, when meetings got contentious, my colleague would lean over and whisper, “This is a thankless job!”...

Grandparenting provides an endless series of satisfying experiences exceeding anything I could have anticipated. I scrum around with a...

My wife’s retirement has confirmed what my high school science teachers taught me, that nature really does abhor a vacuum. This...

As a kid, I stopped in at my grandparents’ house at 704 Pine St. about twice a month. Besides the pleasant family re-connection, there...

Lately, when I awaken briefly in the middle of the night, it’s become common to find myself in “whatever happened to?” land. Names that...

Gripped by Covid overload, what the disease has revealed about our society is the last thing I want to write about. But sometimes the...

Watching the Phillies on TV the other night, I focused on a close-up that demanded my attention. A dad (or some insensitive version of...

Even though we completed our move to Philadelphia a year ago, I’m still coming across relics from different times and different places....

I marvel sometimes about how fragments of the past suddenly re-appear after years of being ignored by their negligent guardian, me. In...

Her reaction surprised me. She looked at me doubtfully, eyes narrowed, but then, a tentative smile began to lighten her face. “Me?” she...

In this ever-competitive country, everything must be ordered and evaluated––even our retirement plans. Today in Inside Higher Ed, I...

BEFORE––Tomorrow, I’m going to take care of one more complication that stems from moving. In case you’re worried, I’m in no danger of...