"Chip Off the Old Block and Cleaver: A Memoir, A Cookbook, A Dollop of Poetry" represents the first foray into book writing by this author; it is the completed realization of at least one of my personal pipe dreams picked off before my demise.

I discovered that, during the course of writing the memoir portion, I actually had a lot of living to look back on with a semblance of pride and a fair share of variety, given my experiences as a proud Western New Yorker by birth, with an even more interesting smorgasbord of work experiences once moving REALLY upstate to Lake Placid.

I became a Jersey guy upon graduation from college (in Ohio) and embraced the Garden State as my new home, and found it just as hospitable and appealing as The Empire State had been.

I discovered my professional niche while working in a well-regarded private psychiatric hospital and fell in love with being part of the healing which transpired there.

In the past 10+ years since full-time retirement I have endeavored to capitalize on the food funnery by writing the recipes I had collected over so many years, and spreading the wealth, as it were, to anyone who loves to cook good, unostentatious grub. I thought I might just as well add the lyrical musings amassed over the years as a cherry on the top of the recipes.

The only question remaining: will people appreciate a life journal, a handful of recipes, and some fine arts literature all in the same book? That remains to be seen. Here's hoping.