Since moving here six months ago, like all the residents when they first make this extraordinary life style change, I have been adapting to a way of life I never anticipated experiencing. While publicity for CCRC facilities don't make a point of this, one of the primary benefits of living in one, as a couple or single, is that they help you make the best of the time you have left to live. Considering that people you love, know well, or are just acquainted with, are dying all the time, this is something of a death culture. However, calling it this may sound grim; however it is anything but. We talk about death and grief openly; and there is great solace knowing we're all in this together. By and large, this is an upbeat place to grow old - and face the death of your loved one or yourself.

Photos above along the campus river walk near my house.

At the Halloween dinner party, as myself in 1970. Enlarge to see my 1969 grad school ID

Mac and Duff enjoy the gas fireplace.

On Nov. 5th I decided to grow a beard in silent protest to the way the national elections went.

For more photos, go to my Facebook page. On the left sidebar go to photos and then to photo albums.

I took the photo here in a Washington state birding park. It is an inch long peeper. It is one of the photos I enlarged to 13" by 19" to frame and hang in the house.

Here at Willamette View..... with a long shot taken from Elk Island.

I packed up my car, and Mac, Duff and I made our way across the country to relocate in Portland, Oregon. Since June 5, 2014, we've been living in our new house, a duplex in a CCRC on the bluffs above the Willamette River.

You'll find it almost impossible to find my blogs now since the GateHouse Media papers that carry them have been modernized with a new look. Unfortunately getting the blogger section online where they can be found has the lowest priority. We all should be listed in the Opinions > Columns section.

My most recent blog, however, was published in some 150 GateHouse Media publications in the entertainment section thanks to my editor.

You can read it, and a few other of my pieces (with photos missing) here.

Just a reminder to keep up with my newspaper blog:

The Eclectic Digest

which is new once or twice a week.

The most recent blogs at

Community Blog: Hal Brown's Eclectic Digest

Now that he's retired, psychotherapist Hal Brown of Middleboro finds that sharing his ideas is his own personal therapy.

Updated 3 minute(s) ago

Detroit Tigers win pennant - in Africa

By Hal Brown

I was at the mall yesterday and ran into a security guard I know.

He told me about how all the merchants that carry sports merchadise would be working after hours.

They’d be waiting anxiously to find out if they’d be happily putting all the Red Sox 2013 Ammerican League Champions clothes and other merchandise on display and on the racks.

If you have an idea for a topic for me to write about, or a question or a correction, for me, feel free to email me here. I will not share your email address with anyone.

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Updated Oct 18, 2013 @ 06:03 PM

Sex for sale and legalizing prostitution

By Hal Brown

“Masseuse led double life” is the above the fold headline in The Brockton Enterprise. For some reason this is bigger news in the Brockton area than the Braintree area, since The Patriot Headline is “A.G. want chemist jailed 5-7 years.”. I am sure readers of The Ledger would be as interested in this story as those who read The Enterprise.

Come on, be honest. Who isn't at least a little bit interested in this story? How many men won't take aonother look atZyriah's photo and ask why they weren't like Justin Richard who wrote as a comment to the first article "Zyriah is translated to Steve!!!! That's a man baby!!!!!!"

That being said, the gender reassignment matter is what made this a headline story.

I bet The Enterprise sells more papers today than the Ledger.

What can anyone write about sex and prostitution that hasn’t already been written? For that matter, what can anyone write about the pros and cons of legalizing prostitution in the United States that hasn't already been written?

Drawing, Wikimedia Commons, artist unknown)

If you have an idea for a topic for me to write about, or a question or a correction, for me, feel free to email me here. I will not share your email address with anyone.

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Updated Oct 19, 2013 @ 12:45 PM

It’s all about morality: The case of the Middleboro hit and run driver

By Hal Brown

(Updateed) I expect most of you have heard about the hit and run accident which killed Michael Dutra while he was riding his bicycle in Middleboro early Friday evening.

There are calls for this person to come forward. Certainly they have a moral obligation to do so.

As I write this it’s Monday morning. Presumably the police still do not know the individual’s identity. They do have leads, and I hope they have suspects. I expect that by now they know from experience that the driver isn’t likely to walk into the police station voluntarily.

(Includes a message to whoever committed this crime about their self-interest.)

New: A message to the passenger in the vehicle:

Read more: http://www.enterprisenews.com/eclectic#ixzz2iIBTC5IO
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