Barry Markovsky

For the past month, I’ve been on a little journey. A cultural journey, actually. The first steps were unremarkable, but in retrospect, they’ve taken on greater significance. I didn’t know where they were heading. I didn’t even realize they were heading anywhere.   I’ll get to that shortly. For now, let’s back up ten months. I’ve just signed the contract for my book, and shortly after, the publisher set its release date for March 17, 2026. Now here we are, with less than five weeks to go. For...

Behold, the glorious HP25C calculator. It was mine, once. Isn’t it beautiful?   When I bought it in the winter of 1975, it listed for $195. That would be over $1,300 today. To put it in perspective, my tuition at the University of Massachusetts for the 1974-1975 school year was $300.   I couldn’t afford a two hundred dollar calculator. But a nice guy down the hall, a savvy senior and business major named Dave, said he could get it for me at cost. A bit of a nerd himself, Dave understood  me,...

Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.  —Christopher Hitchens What does the quote have to do with ghosts, aside from the fact that some studies show a healthy correlation between religious beliefs and ghost beliefs—in humans anyway?...