I think I took my first California Achievement Test in sixth grade, and then again in seventh or eighth. I don’t know if they still give them, but if they don’t it’s an educational triumph. The CATs were a multiple choice test that were supposed to measure out aptitudes for all ...

Last week’s column was about my first day in boot camp, at Camp Barry, which was the processing camp. It was an introduction to boot camp, a warm-up act for the main show. We’d be there for only a couple of days and then be formed into a regular company and moved to Camp Dewey, where we’d ...

Monday morning began like all the others. I got up, took out the dogs, fed them and the cat, and drank coffee. But mid-second cup I started to feel like something was off. Actually, something was off ... but I had no idea what it was. I thought maybe I had an appointment but in typical Dopish ...

People accuse me of always being late, but that’s not true. Yeah, sure, I’m late a lot of the time — even most of the time. But there’s one thing I’m never late for, and that’s doctors’ appointments. This, of course, is a supreme irony. For, like every other shmendrick in the ...

I have been a compulsive talker. To some, it might be my greatest asset; to others, my biggest flaw. Value judgments aside, it’s fair to say the Amazon Queen’s bestowing upon me the nickname Jabber Jaw is perfectly justified. Certainly, I’m almost never at a loss for words. In fact, ...

Jeane Dixon, arguably America’s most famous “psychic,” hit the spotlight by predicting JFK’s assassination. OK, so she didn’t honestly predict it — instead, she did it in perfect “psychic” fashion: In a 1956 Parade magazine article she wrote that the 1960 presidential ...