Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is in vogue these days. People toss around phrases like “my OCD is acting up,” or “I’m so OCD” as a way to express their fastidiousness or propensity for cleaning, safety, organization, matching, and the like. OCD is th

Over the past few years, the Halloween spirit hasn’t really taken me, which is odd because there was a time that I was a Halloween zealot. The last time I wore a costume was in 2007 when I dressed as Buckethead, the enigmatic guitar genius. Other than that, my only recent partic

By the 8th grade my horror movie immersion was at its zenith. I had a subscription to Fangoria and would supplement the time in-between issues with copies of Gorezone, among others. I had amassed an impressive mask collection from Halloweens past, my favorite of which was the full hea

Growing up in Southeastern Massachusetts on the border of Rhode Island meant that our kitchen cabinets were usually stocked with coffee syrup. This staple stood among the ranks of other flavorings like Nestlé Quik, Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, and Ovaltine, all of which turned an ordina

The TSA agent didn’t seem to notice the tiny B.A. Baracus that rode on the x-ray conveyor belt along with my wallet, phone, belt, shoes, and carry on bag. I dropped him into the basket designated for the contents of my pockets just before crossing through the metal detector. I m

T-shirts are a fine way to express yourself or profess your love for something. They are like bumper stickers for the torso, stating “hey, I like and/or believe in this thing.” They can help people find members of their own tribe. They can attempt to signal status, opinion

My parents walked me into kindergarten on my first day of school. I didn’t fully understand that we weren’t just visiting a new place, but that I was being surrendered to the mercy of the public school system for a long school career. I attended Kindergarten at the old A.S

When channel surfing, Jaws is one of those movies that always knocks me off of my surfboard. No matter how far into the movie it is, I’ll usually stop and watch it to the end. I can’t say how many times I’ve seen Jaws, but I’d venture to guess that I’ve seen it more than a

In most situations, I tend to imagine the worst case scenario. This delightful character trait is a bit of behavior I learned from my father, a catastrophist whose glass is perpetually half-empty. My talent for negative thinking has been honed to a fine art when it comes to medical or