Friday Donuts

 Friends, Do you ever feel caught in a cycle? Eat, work, sleep. Rinse, wash, repeat. We are, after all, creatures of habit. Yet, while the broad categories into which we compartmentalize our activities may sometimes seem to follow a rigid pattern, if you dig a little deeper, the details vary. I believe Heraclitus was onto something. No man ever steps into the same river twice. I’m somewhat of a sucker for photographing landscapes. There’s this one particular spot in my neighborhood where my phone tells me I have 143 photos, mostly pointed towards the mountains. It might feel like I’m recreating the same photo. The same framing of the same bucolic golf course in front of the same rugged mountains around the same time. Yet, the results are different every time. It never gets old because it’s never the same landscape twice. I suppose there’s a lesson there about mindfulness. I suppose, also, that’s why I’ve stuck with Friday donuts so long. It follows a pattern, yes, but if you’re paying

 Friends, “Follow us on Instagram”, read the unassuming sign at my dermatologist’s office. Intriguing! Admittedly, not intriguing enough to actually go on Instagram, let alone follow them. Instead, I let my imagination fill-in the gaps. What might they possibly be posting? Photos of warts, moles, rashes and bad skin all seemed plausible. The realm of misguided marketing miscues is filled with possibilities. Pixelated faces or redacted eyes concealing the identities of the woefully afflicted, all in the name of scaring patients into using sunscreen and getting regular check-ups. This would be consistent with my one other experience in medical social sharing. My endodontist who on occasion WhatsApps root canal X-rays and photos of anonymous wide-mouthed patients –dental torture devices firmly mounted to their faces. His handle: “Let’s talk endodontics”. Let’s not and say we did! You know, maybe social sharing is not for everyone. We ought to leave it to beautiful people and donut purveyo

Friends, Most folks are, or aspire to be, good. For proof, check-out any of the myriad social media add-ons claiming to tell you something about yourself. Your spirit animal is likely a dragon, lion or horse, never a weasel, blobfish or pool scum. Why? Because of your courage, loyalty, beauty and charm, of course! Any “negative” trait has a positive spin (say, crazy or fierce). Your name means some virtue and your last name has a glorious ancient origin. If you’re single, you should be dating a hot celebrity or flawless model –I’ve yet to see it predict a pock-faced methmouth. Your eye color says you’re a leader. And of course, you can read garbled text with the top 1%, solve the puzzles reserved for geniuses and share once you do, to prove it! Speaking of sharing, your patriotism, religious fervor and compassion are all fake, unless you share, like and comment. I call it the “guilt trip call-to-action”. Things like… “I know you won’t share”, or “if you’re ashamed of me, I will be as

Friends, Typecasting is inevitable. No matter how hard actors may try to distance themselves from the characters they play, one tends to stick with us. Keanu Reeves may play Neo (The Matrix) or John Wick (idem) but he will always be Ted “Theodore” Logan (excellent!). That said, some actors get away with more than others. Take Jason Bateman. He’s credible as either Marty Byrde (Ozark) or Pepper Brooks (Dodgeball). If you hadn’t made that connection before, I may have just ruined Ozark for you. Sorry, not sorry! As Cotton McKnight (ESPN ocho’s other narrator) might have put it, credibly playing different roles “separates the wheat from the chaff, the boys from the men and the awkwardly feminine from the possibly Canadian”. Speaking of Canadian over-actors, William Shatner has got the right idea. Whether as a law firm spokesperson or promoting a sleep disorder equipment cleaner, he seems to be leaning-in to the bombastic Priceline negotiator character that made him famous…  or was there a