While we’re on the topic of brain anatomy, have I mentioned my tumor? It’s a benign growth in my pituitary gland. Be careful what you pray for. During the year of my depression, I got down on my knees every morning and begged God to give me a brain tumor and/or cancer–some kind of terminal…

Maybe it’s because I’m mentally ill myself that I find the behavior of “American Idol’s” contestants perfectly normal. Even if the early audition crowd does suck–if they are “humiliations set to music” (according to a “Washington Post” article)–more power to them for going after their dreams. “I don’t want to patronize you, but it’s never…

Here’s a Newsweek interview with Jennifer Crocker, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan who focuses on self-esteem issues, regarding the treatment of contestants on “American Idol.” She believes that the judges’ criticism “can hurt people’s self-esteem temporarily and the more invested they are, the more they’ve attached their self-worth to being a…

Last Wednesday a friend of mine died. He was one of the most successful newspaper columnists of his time, the recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, and a comic genius. But I appreciated Art Buchwald most as one of the three “Blues Brothers,” (with Pulitzer-Prize winner William Styron and former “60 Minutes” co-anchor Mike Wallace) who…

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