I think the only two things that can keep me away from OS is either death or taxes. Fortunately there was no death involved. I spent the last two and half days working on my taxes.

Let me tell you it must've been a lot more fun to be doing… Read full post »

It's been hard for me the last month or so since my wife and I are now together under one roof. I've had to face the reality that I couldn't go on being unfaithful to her.

This isn't easy for me to share, here. At first, when I became involved with… Read full post »

I've been bemused by the negative reaction to the new business model rolled out by Open Salon. This is all about change. People hate change. In almost every organization, people resist change. We can look at OS's cover for the last few days, to see the White House press corps outrage that… Read full post »

This is going to be a rather dull post. There's not going to be any finger pointing, nor any shots at the left or the animus right. I'm going to stay on substance only, and that could mean this post is quite boring.

Fear of change

We live in a society… Read full post »

OS is a safe place to write and experiment

OS has smart people who know how to write, draw, photograph and create works of art.

OS bloggers are a generous group of human beings.

OS bloggers resist change

OS bloggers make mistakes, but own up to them and apologize.

OS bloggers… Read full post »

I realized that I missed Haiku Thursday yesterday. I'm sure there were dozens, if not hundreds, of OS readers who were gleeful I didn't post a Haiku.

OS has been a virtual corner wateringhole for me for almost 6 months. Like the TV series Cheers, ...where everybody knows your name, I stop… Read full post »

If you live aboard your sailboat in the winter and have to use the head, you use the one on shore, not the one on the boat. Even with the diesel heater, you feel the dampness. So I climb out of the sleeping bag, open the companionway and peer out at… Read full post »

I was enjoying the beginning of a holiday weekend as a REAL AMERICAN when Sarah Palin decided to flounce off the Alaskan tundra.

Why do people have to make such a big deal out of leaving? It happens here at OS quite often. Posts are written about it, commenters comment about it,… Read full post »

About ten years ago I sat in my cube and wondered what was wrong with Susie. She was a good employee, conscientious, hard working, committed, and a good trainer. But lately she has been resistant, and withdrawn. She was refusing to complete work assignments that involved writing, and I couldn't under… Read full post »

In the go-go 80s, there was Magnum, PI, Miami Vice, and Remington Steele. These shows had action, panache, flair, sex, fast cars, faster boats, and even faster women. Testosterone and estrogen flowed like the falls over the Niagra River. Oh, to be a PI in the 1980s. For two short years I… Read full post »

You might say I live a charmed life. I have a job in New York City, and I have an open position I need to fill. This has got to be an incredibly easy task. Like being the only male teen in an all girl high school and needing a date… Read full post »

A rant about change and optimism. 

This is not the best of times right now. For many it is the worst of times. I am grateful that the majority of the American people woke up and started to take back control of our country last November. When I think of the… Read full post »

Greetings and salutations,

I've noticed recently that you're fed up with paying taxes and hate our government. Our government doesn't do anything right, it should be drowned in a bathtub. Since we've been at war for the past 6 years, you'll excuse me for questioning your patriotism. Taxes pay the sal… Read full post »

There was a time in my life where my relationships with women were, just a bit rocky, to say the least. It was the mid 1980s, and my significant other and I were living together in New Hampshire. It was time to take a vacation. She wanted to go camping in… Read full post »

All right let me just say it plainly and explicitly, I used to stare at women's breasts. All the time. Never needed to make eye contact, never tried. Then I had my consciousness raised by a woman in college who helped me look at women differently.

She was two years… Read full post »

Many of you have read about my past experiences as a private detective. In the early 80s I worked in industrial security at a construction project in New Hampshire where they were building as nuclear power plant.

One Sunday, in February of 1983 , I was reading the classifieds in… Read full post »

SEE UPDATE AT THE END OF THE POST 

While most OSers  have shared interesting details about themselves and their life experience, some of the more interesting aspects are kept from public view.

My open call to all of you who read are to participate in a fairly well known ice breaker for… Read full post »

Let me say at the outset that both my wife and I consider ourselves very, very fortunate in the current economic crisis. I have a job in New York City and she has her own business which is doing ok in this slow economy. We know this could all change in… Read full post »

This actually happened this morning around 11:15 am. I'm walking up Sixth Avenue from West 35th Street to West 38th Street.

On the corner of West 37th Street, a woman about 80 years old stops me. She's about 5'3" tall, short gray hair, glasses and is wearing a magenta jacket… Read full post »

Now that I got that Thursday Haiku monkey off my back, I can have more fruitful discussion with you. There are managers and there are leaders. Managers tell you what to do, leaders inspire you to do good things. The best example of the differences between a manager and a leader was… Read full post »

There are some iconic families in America that set a standard for their lack of dysfunction. They're all fictional of course. We know them as the Nelsons (they're real name), the Cleavers, the Andersons (Father Knows Best), and even the Cunninghams (Happy Days).

The problems were small, the husbands… Read full post »

For those of you who haven't read the back story it's here:

http://open.salon.com/blog/oesheepdog/2009/04/10/i_turned_down_the_cia_the_story_of_my_interviews_part_i

and here:

http://open.salon.com/blog/oesheepdog/2009/04/13/i_turned_down_the_cia_my_interviews_part_ii/comment

Summer passes into fall.… Read full post »

It took me almost my whole life to find true love. I didn't get it by doing a Google search, or by going to a bar, or by standing on a street corner. Not for my lack of trying, though. I'm still coughing from those exhaust fumes.

There is an intimacy and comfort… Read full post »

The solution is at the bottom of my updated post 

This is a follow up to the story I shared last week.

http://open.salon.com/blog/oesheepdog/2009/02/17/my_life_as_a_private_investigator

Back when society was trying to decide between Betamax and VHS, and vinyl LPs were still being sold, I worked… Read full post »

That what my 15 year old daughter, M, screamed at me in a fit of rage. My response, "That's my job and I love my work." The anger was diffused in an instant and we both had a good laugh. In a few months we would stop laughing. It would be almost… Read full post »