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Why Suicide?
Haunted by his father’s death when he was only 10, Eric Marcus produced a book that answers every imaginable question about suicide. “I’m sorry that you have any reason to read this book. But the sad...
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Turkish Baths and the Bedroom
The Turkish bath is a legendary form of therapy. No surprise, then, that it leaves some with satisfying sexual side effects. Almost from the moment they landed in Istanbul, my friend Geoffrey’s wife,...
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I Was Haunted By Fear That I’d Never Wake Up
Merv Kaufman confronts his worst fear while lying on a gurney. The city bus wasn’t crowded, though some people were standing in the aisle, but when the mother hefting a huge, clunky stroller pulled...
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“The Clock is Dick-Dick-Dicking”
“Forty years on, memories of the ignominious Watergate scandal linger, like a non-murderous Holocaust.” Merv Kaufman reviews Thomas Mallon’s novel “Watergate.” I remember the moment clearly: It was...
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Do You Have to be Tall to Make it in Business?
For men, height may still be a factor when career-making jobs are on the line. Merv Kaufman tells his story. “You’re young, you’re tall, you’ve got the world by the back of the neck.” This was tossed...
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OUTPLACEMENT (It’s Not Like Having Your Balls Cut Off, Maybe Just Nicked a Bit)
One Man’s Journey Through the Forced March of Outplacement — As a parting gift, after being released from a job I loved, I was told I would receive outplacement services. Outplacement, indeed! What...
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Having a Big Body Part Has Haunted Me Forever
It was only when Merv Kaufman stopped caring that the self-consciousness and self-loathing finally vanished. — It was always too big—I’d known that since childhood. It was like excess baggage I had to...
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We Got Our Jobs Done. Even As The Business Was Crumbling Around Us.
Merv Kaufman comes to realize that in business, adversity is what you work through, not quit on. — The usual procedure, when a new CEO arrived from our home office in Paris or a current chief...
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After 50 Years, I Sent Back My College Fraternity Pin
“I felt better after purging my memory of the sham and false brotherhood.” — Years of reading stories about hazing scandals, collective date rape and cruel separatism finally got to me. Long removed...
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I Considered Myself an Alert Father Until I Was Caught Off Guard
The Soldiers and Sailors Monument rises majestically atop a marble-paved knoll overlooking Riverside Park and the Hudson River, in upper Manhattan. An enlarged version of an existing Athenian monument,...
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