The movies we love and admire are to some extent a function of who we are when we see them.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Opening day. All you have to do is say the words and you feel the shutters thrown wide, the room air out, the light pour in. In baseball, no other day is so pure with possibility. No scores yet, no losses, no blame or disappointment. No hangover, at least until the game's over.

Alcohol, contrary to instinct, is not the secret to happiness.

For some Chicago expats, food is the medicine that blunts the pain of separation.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s.

The soul-sucking activity of TV-watching feels better when it is done with other souls.