Paris 2018 – Day 4
At the recommendation of my friend Robin who is just back from Paris, we go to Bois de Boulogne for Patricia’s daily jog. Bois de Boulogne was a hunting preserve of the French king...
Road Trips and Resistance Blog
Paris 2018 – Day 5
I am determined to learn more about the French Resistance. I follow Google Maps to take us to the Musée de l’Ordre de la Libération, but it seems to lead us to some administrative...
Paris 2018 – Day 6
After a day spent in London at the funeral of my father, we turn up in the wee hours of the morning at London Gatwick Airport to pack Patricia off to Brooklyn, for an...
My Father: James Patrick Courtney
It was 3 a.m. in the morning for my sister when she messaged me. It was about our father.
Paris 2018 – Last Day
Packing up in the morning, I prepare to leave the tiny apartment I have rented. It is on the top floor of a seven story building, with a courtyard filled with plants and an...
Best Pizza in the World
Some people swear by John’s Pizzeria on Bleeker Street. And many believe that there is no such thing as pizza outside the five boroughs, and definitely not in Chicago. But not so. When I...
Skydiving
Before kids, three of us decided to go skydiving. Tandem jump strapped to an instructor, just go, get kitted up, jump out of a plane. Our wives got wind of the plan. We probably...
Identity
I called a friend who does not identify on the binary gender spectrum “she”, not “they”, and was rightfully called out for it. It was impolite, and politeness is important to me. That is...
Meeting Hannah
Hannah and I met as nice young Jewish boys and girls do, at a mixer for the new students on a Hebrew language course, on a kibbutz in Israel. I was conscious of her...
The Best Hospital Food In the World
I am writing this in my bed in Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan, where the staff are extremely friendly and competent, and I have a gallstone problem that is very routine for...