It wasn’t the kind of parting line you’d expect from an ex-Marine who served in Iraq. As with many good jokes, some context is required. I’ve been batting 1000 these days, at least when it comes to hiring Taskrabbits. First, Vladimir, an extraordinary packer, and now Eric, a young veteran I hired ...

Even though at this very moment, right outside my window, there’s snow falling on a grove of other trees, I’m still moved by the recent loss of my own largest tree. (I wrote about it two weeks ago HERE.) Knowing that its descendants are scattered from Brooklyn to Maine helps a lot, too. Indeed, this experi...

The source of the quote may surprise you: This is a ruthless world and one must be ruthless to cope with it. It’s from Charlie Chaplin in Monsieur Verdoux (1947), uttered during a pivotal scene when he, a former bank clerk turned serial seducer and murdere...

There’s perhaps some irony that—even though I’ve chosen it for this month’s theme HERE and despite having several clients who are experts and teachers of the craft— I’ve never actually taken a single class or workshop. I can justify this since—for better or worse—it’s been ...

It wasn’t the only reason I chose him. After all, he had completed 461 tasks and, based on 281 reviews, possessed a perfect 5.0 rating. Nonetheless, I admit that one of the more whimsical reasons I hired this particular Taskrabbit to help organize my own Fresh Start (the them...

I recently reported that although my new optometrist told me my prescription had changed, she neglected to say that vision in one eye had actually improved. She did, however, also set up an appointment with a retina specialist. Edward Vilga is a reader-supported publication. To re...

I could never fault him, though I’m unsure whether this was a failure in deductive reasoning or a blatant attempt at a scam. When our friend Robbie was back in town and visited us, I cautioned him that while Vlad’s recovery has been excellent, we should avoid testing it with their favorit...

Except for the ending, it was an absolutely lovely Christmas Eve. December 24th marked Day 13 of Vlad’s “bedrest,” which essentially meant no morning fetch in the park, no long afternoon walks, and no visitors for him to greet. Cha Cha came for dinner, and Vlad, slightly subdued on the ...

He would have been the first to describe himself as a nerd. In fact, he probably included that in his response to my Craig’s List post decades ago for the spare room I was renting in my Chinatown loft. Looking at his LinkedIn profile now, it’s full of things I don’t completely understa...