When you find love, it can be amazing. When your love then no longer cares, it can be devastating. Why did this delightful and intelligent young woman think I want to shackle her in marriage, to be my "Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Baby Machine," when we hadn't even had our second date yet?

In 1972, my city experienced flooding from Hurricane Agnes. Hardly as devastating as more recent storms (Katrina, etc.), for me personally it was quite the upheaval. Inches of water in the basement, a day of bailing, news of flooding up and down the Susquehanna River. These events stay with you.

Water conservation! New topic? No, I figured out that it was a good idea back in 1966. My city was experiencing a drought, and behaviors that started then are still with me today—in case we have more problems with water. And, with global climate change, that seems like it just might be an important issue...

The Key Theatre was a second-run movie theatre in Hazleton, PA. For $1 you could see movies that you had missed not that long before. It was a great time--but what added to the experience was trying to decipher the marquee. With missing letters, sometimes titles were difficult to figure out, when they weren't downright incendiary!

They say you can't go home again. It's worse when you go back to visit somewhere and your favorite place to hang out is no more. This happened to me with Bernie's Bagels, where I spent many...okay, let's say interesting hours.

Even though I am a theatre guy, I love music. Okay, some music. But I have attended a few concerts where I have had remarkable and, in one case, what I would consider to be a transformative experience. And this is why I force my students to go to theatre and music events.

I have always exhibited some OCD-like tendencies. My wife has a cure for certain symptoms, but I am not sure it's done everything SHE hoped. In the meantime I revel in my glory as a completist. Is this OCD that I'm experiencing? Let's examine the symptoms and manifestations, and laugh at myself at the same time.

You look at the title and say, "How do I pronounce it? What's it about? How did he have time, as a busy academic, to make a podcast?" These and many other questions are answered in this, the first in the series.