Fun is good. Fun helps the body and mind reset and relax. Fun makes you feel better about yourself and others. Fun can enhance learning. Fun activities such as moving and dancing and playing sports can have health benefits too, like better cardiovascular health, more energy, better sleep and…

Back in the old days, when I was growing up on Brook Street, things were different.

I thought I’d keep it simple and to the point this week. Here are some tips for happiness.

Last week, I was watching the last season of the “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (Rachel Brosnahan) on Amazon Prime.

I’m taking health education graduate classes to expand my brain and my general knowledge. This semester I’m taking a health leadership and ethics class where I read about the Caux principles.

We had friends over for dinner last weekend and the topic of humor came up. They asked, “How can you judge if something is funny?” To which I replied, “If I write something that makes me laugh, I figure it’s funny enough to make somebody else laugh; therefore, it’s funny.”

The brain has two ways of processing thinking: fast and slow. By understanding and embracing both types of thinking, we can use a more balanced and effective approach to problem-solving, decision-making, and life itself.

When watching Mets and Yankees games, I often see this commercial for a car brand that advertises “escape from Basic,” or something to that effect. The commercial shows a bunch of boring-looking people living in a square, bleak, almost black-and-white world where everything is basic. A color…

It’s been said “humans are programmed to survive, not to be happy.” Hence, we have to work a bit to be happy. So here are some suggestions.

I thought we all could use a light little fun column, so I decided to write about commercials I like.

I’ve been experimenting a lot with ChatGPT as I feel it has great potential to be a writing and information aid.

I like to write about gratitude about every six months. As Dr. David Steindi-Rast says, “It’s not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy. After all, gratitude and expressing gratitude are two of the basic tenets of happiness.”

For something new and lighter, I thought I would give my live thoughts while watching the Oscars.

ChatGPT continues to be in the news a lot. In many ways, chatbots will someday make as big a difference as the internet did, but that day is still a wee bit away. It’s not as far off as say “warp drive,” but it’s still not ready for prime time.

I’ve touched on this subject before, but it’s important to note from a happiness and productivity standpoint it can be beneficial to end each day by briefly thinking about what happened that day and jotting down a couple of things to do the next day.

Over the weekend, I watched much of NBA’s All-Star competition events. I gotta say I could have used way more hoops and less hoopla, but I guess I’m not their target demographic when it comes to the non-b’ball entertainment.

Last week, a friend posted on Facebook that after watching how the City Council members treat each other, they felt like moving away from Geneva. I felt bad and hoped they would stay. I also pointed out that it’s not just Geneva; this is a nationwide problem, and it has been for a long time.

Now that I’ve reached the age of being able to qualify for Social Security, I thought it would be good to shock my brain a bit.

As I sit here writing this story, I am also living it. I’m leaving a note to myself and also asking Siri to remind me to “pick up Olga at 4:50.” This is because of something I really messed up two weeks ago.

I have a guest writing for this week’s column.

I remember back in the old days (i.e. the early 2000s). I, along with many others, had a late-night ritual of brushing teeth, showering (I’m a nighttime shower guy), and curling up in bed with a good book.

I’ve often said sports are the ultimate reality show (disclosure: I did not make this phrase up, but I totally agree with it). Let’s look at what happened to the Buffalo Bills over the last two weeks.

Hello all. Happy New Year and all that jazz. Now that I got that out of the way, I thought I’d type about something different this week.

Wow, it’s hard to believe another year has almost come to an end. I’ve just gotten used to remembering to write 2022 when I date something. It will probably take me a few weeks or months to let 2023 sink into my gray matter. I’ll miss the symmetry of 2022. It’s not quite as symmetrical as 22…

They say, “It’s better to give than receive.” That’s because giving not only makes the receiver feel good, it actually makes the giver feel better.

There’s a saying “No news is good news.” It pretty much means if anything bad happens you’ll hear about it. Until then, don’t worry, be happy.

We tend to think that being average is, well, being less than ideal.

The World Cup, the most popular sporting event in the world, is going on right now, several months later than its normal summer spot. While the event always seems to spark some controversy, this year’s event is rife with more due to the host being Qatar.

I can’t stress enough how important it is for happiness to spotlight the things in life you are grateful for. I know I do this a lot, but being the week of Thanksgiving (and being on a short schedule), I thought I’d express my gratitude again.

They say it’s good for a person to leave their comfort zone now and then, and once again I have left mine.

We have an election coming up, and in many ways it shows how divided our country is. To try to bridge the divide a little, I thought I’d try to show how, if we work at it, pretty much anybody can find some common ground with anybody else.

It’s easy to forget that we can disagree with each other and still be civil and still be friends.

A couple of weeks ago I had a head cold I couldn’t shake. To be cautious, I went to one of the local medical centers to be tested and checked out. When the nurse swabbed my nose for the test I was so stuffy the swab didn’t work. The nurse apologized for the inconvenience. But I told her, “He…

For those of you who do not know, I’ve been a Mets fan since 1967 (please note I also like and appreciate the Yankees, and I root for them unless they are playing the Mets). Being a Mets fan for the last 50-plus years means I’ve ended the baseball season disappointed every time, except for 1…

A couple of days ago I found an article online about that old “ice bucket challenge” that was going around in, believe it or not (I was shocked), 2014 (side note: I could have sworn it was going around in 2020. That’s how time moves so much quicker the older we get. But that’s fodder for ano…

Saturday, my wife and I decided to go to the National Women’s Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony at the Smith Opera House in Geneva. I like to consider myself a modern male and am super supportive of women. Plus, Mia Hamm was being inducted, and I gotta admit I was hoping to see her and her hus…

I’ve been asked to go to a university to talk to its students about humor and comedy writing. This university has a very famous humor writer and producer who they are also inviting to come and speak at the same time. I told them, “If you get (other person’s name) to come, I’d love be on a pa…

One happiness hack of mine: Each night, before going to sleep, I write down (or think about) something new or interesting I learned that day. So, for the last few years I’ve been concentrating on learning something new every day.

Last weekend I heard a story about how, in the early 1990s, Newt Gingrich thought the GOP was being too polite and needed to stop compromising. Thus, triggering the era of political nastiness that we find ourselves in today.

We’ve been seeing a lot about virtual reality on TV lately, mainly in commercials.

For some strange reason I started to think about what I would do if I ran for political office. Just to be clear, I will never, ever run for political office. I would be a TERRIBLE politician: I can’t remember names, I hate long meetings, I do not wear suits, I’m not fond of traveling or spe…

This is an edited remix (i.e. repeat of an earlier “Positive Vibes” due to the fact that my wife and I spent the early part of the week helping our son move from Buffalo to Albany).

Last weekend one of our friends sent me a quote from Doctor David Steindi-Rast that read, “It’s not happiness that makes us grateful. It’s gratefulness that makes us happy.” She asked if I believed that, and I replied, “Yes, absolutely gratitude is one of the basic tenets of happiness.” In f…

Last weekend, Olga and I watched the new sci-fi streaming series “Paper Girls” on Amazon. First, I’m happy to report it was a true streaming series, as Amazon gave us all eight episodes at once. I’m sorry, but it’s not streaming if you must wait a week for each episode; that is episodic TV, …

Last week the New Yorker ran an article entitled, “Can Pickleball Save America” by Sarah Larson. Being a known pickleball fan, a lot of people forwarded that article to me. It was a long article, but I waded through it.

A few weeks ago Disney Plus debuted a new Marvel hero series, “Ms. Marvel.” If the name seems familiar, it’s because Ms. Marvel’s story ties in with Captain Marvel, who has her own movies and has been a big part of the Avenger movies — although I must admit I didn’t know much about Ms. Marve…

For this week, I thought I would get back to basics and my roots and give everybody five fairly easy things you can do to increase and improve your happiness.

It’s been said, “Don’t put off ’til tomorrow what you can do today!” But we humans in general are bad at that; procrastination runs deep in us. This can be especially deep when putting off something we really don’t like.

A few days ago, I saw a meme that said something to the effect of, “I might not know how to do TikTok, but I do know how to write in cursive and tell time on an analog clock.”