My father died in March and my uncle died in April. Both deaths were sudden, but not entirely surprising. My father and uncle lived, respectively, on the top two floors of a three-family house in an increasingly deteriorating part of Fall River, Massachusetts. My dad never remarried,

It’s no secret that I’m fond of revisiting my past. Recently, this temporal wanderlust was prompted by my taste buds. A sudden craving for one particular childhood foodstuff lured me to an aisle of my local grocery store that I don’t normally frequent these days. I narrowe

American media is riddled with sales pitches that promise immediately gratifying health, happiness, and satisfaction. As intended, this kind of manipulation certainly worked on my malleable child brain. I actually believed the commercial that suggested I’d be able to tear my Manglor t

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