I am a retired community college English instructor/administrator. When it is warm enough, I spend lots of time perched on my upper deck, reading detective novels and luxuriating in my panoramic view of the ocean. During the winter, my wife and I stay in Waikiki, living in and sprucing up our two condos that we rent out when we are on the mainland

Interests:

I collect classical music, go to chamber music concerts, write controversial letters to the editor of the local paper, root for the Boston Red Sox (I was brought up in Boston and once saw Ted Williams play), enjoy political cartoons on Darryl Cagle's MSNBC website; conduct services as a lay leader for my temple, where I also sing and sermonize; and read for fun anything that is not too scholarly(those days are thankfully over--11 years in grad school were enough exposure to the dry rot in academia). Even though I am no longer an English instructor, I am still blessed (or perhaps afflicted) with overly sensitive antennae for the niceties (or sometimes nightmares) of our ever-evolving language

Music:

classical--all periods but recently baroque music played on period instruments

Movies:

I like any movie that is well acted and well enunciated--mumblers beware

Books:

I dislike books that are poorly written, incoherently plotted, trite, and mawkish. I have no favorite authors; my taste changes over time. The first time I read Conroy's The Prince of Tides, I was enthralled with it. When I taught it a few years later, I found it overblown and dull. Go figure!

Television:

I don't have any favorite actors--I like any actor who can actually act (of course, without mumbling). My favorite shows are the "Law and Order" series, "Brothers and Sisters," and "Prison Break."