I've done a lot of things that would be really impressive if someone else had done them.

Sailed around the North Atlantic for two years in a Coast Guard cutter, rode the big waves, came back to New York and rode the subways without holding on, helped fly a kite up the middle of the English Channel.

Got a degree in journalism at UConn, but skipped classes, slept in the office at the Daily Campus two or three nights a week, covered the 1980 presidential election in Mass., N.H., and Illinois, followed John Anderson around, graduated the day Mt. St. Helens erupted.

Worked as a corresondent for the Hartford Courant, quit to cover the statehouse for the Connecticut State News Bureau, got fired for writing a story for the New York Times. Wrote for the Times for a year. Interviewed Ben Bova, called Paul Newman's agent for a story on his Hole in the Wall Gang camp for sick kids, prompting a major press event at the camp where I got a 5-minute private interview with Newman.

Got a job at the Journal Inquirer. First assignment, meet with a whistleblower in a janitor's closet at the state police academy. Met Buzz Aldrin at a SFWA Editors & Publishers event, met him again two days later at a NASA event and got a 5-minute private interview.

Was getting ready to retire when the managing editor, news editor, and layout chief met me one morning with big grins on their faces -- they were going to retire and leave me to put out the newspaper every day. In 2023, the family at my family-owned paper sold it to the family-owned Hearst Connecticut Media Group -- which immediately hired me to keep making newspapers with my bare hands.