If It’s a Wonderful Life AND a Beautiful Game, Should Your Soccer Pals Help Stop Mr. Potter From Taking Your House? — Dear Alt Fußballer: I recently made a major, mid-life job change and moved my entire family to Florida. The place is nice but it’s hot, humid — and expensive! Plus, I’m now afraid my kids will adopt their new friends’ habits like carrying guns, devouring buckets of fried chicken, and…

After Three Years Experimenting with My Aged Body, Lessons Learned, Myths Spurned, Bridges Burned, and Ankles Turned — No, I don’t even know your name It doesn’t matter You’re my experimental game Just human nature — Katy Perry, “I Kissed a Girl (and I Liked It)” The ball sped toward me and the guy I was covering. As he prepared to receive it, I swung my left foot…

“Barbie”: Dolls range from childish distractions to absurdly comical rage triggers. They’re just fake people: assembly line products that escort impressionable children into a sad life of conformity and banality. Films about them are merely expensive ads to sell more dolls. Lionel Messi: Wealthy athlete changes teams to become wealthier…

Most essays on Medium are about self-help: over 70 different categories about the same subject. But you might not know that the selves these scribblings are really helping are not you the readers but us the writers. I’m not a fan of the genre, but I confess to dabbling in…

As a lifelong call-it-football player, I enjoyed the Apple TV series “Ted Lasso” as a callow, genuinely American take on Earth’s most popular sport. …

There are lists of foods you wouldn’t eat if you knew the ingredients and how they’re processed. Marshmallows, sausage, shredded cheese. I’d like to add another: News. First, I must tell you that I haven’t watched news in 15 years. I stopped reading newspapers — print or online — about…

Visit any campground and you’ll see. Most of us are not camping. We’re driving our houses around. …

Really, dude? My back was turned waiting for the cross to curl toward me, I’d head it in and celebrate like the guys on TV. The moment we all live for. That’s when I felt something like a knee punching me in my left kidney, knocking me down, landing me…

Medium writer Benjamin Cain recently wrote another insightful essay (yes, I’m a fan) about “bullshit jobs”. I agree that most of what we now call work simply fills time and produces little benefit. But what is most insightful about his essay is buried in the foundation: our bullshit lives. The…