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Time To Kill The OCD Diaries?

by Bill Brenner February 8, 2012 Uncategorized

For a variety of reasons, I’m starting to wonder if it’s time to pull the pin on this grenade. There are good reasons to do so. Mood music: I started this blog to come clean about my demons and break all the stigmas attached to them. But I’m at the point where I’ve said about all I can say about it. –The emotionally-scarring back story? Check. –The story of how I used to be and…  [Read More]

by Bill Brenner January 18, 2012 Uncategorized

Forever Six: Thinking Of The Demenkow Family

by Bill Brenner January 12, 2012 Uncategorized

I’m thinking of two classmates from high school today: Anne Wallace-Demenkow and her husband, Shawn. Their daughter, Emily, would have turned 13 this week. Mood music: She died from cancer at age 6. I know from my brief Facebook exchanges with Anne that this was a terrible loss for her family. What could be worse than losing a child? I don’t know the answer and I hope to never find out. But I’ve lost a sibling and…  [Read More]

Funeral Details for Jessica Cormier

by Bill Brenner January 9, 2012 Uncategorized

Today is the wake and funeral for Jessica Cormier, the girl who worked for my parents and was murdered last week. I was at the family business Saturday and you could tell everyone there is devastated by the loss. I’m told she could handle any task around there. Having worked there as a teenager and early twenty-something, I can tell you that’s no small feat. I’m sorry I never got to know her, but I’m…  [Read More]

Jessica’s Alleged Killer Arrested

by Bill Brenner January 7, 2012 Uncategorized

An update from yesterday’s post. Police have arrested someone in connection with Jessica Cormier‘s murder. Here’s a report from CBS news: EVERETT (CBS) – A 59-year-old Chelsea man has been arrested in connection with the murder of a 20-year-old woman in Everett. Clarence Earl Berry is charged with the fatal stabbing of Jessica Cormier. “This is a horrific and senseless case in which we allege that the defendant fatally stabbed the young victim numerous times, causing…  [Read More]

RIP Jessica Cormier

by Bill Brenner January 6, 2012 Uncategorized

I didn’t really know Jessica Cormier. I met her a couple times in passing. But to my father and stepmom, she was important. Mood music: I was very sad to learn that Jessica was murdered earlier this week — stabbed in the heart by some deranged punk. A life cut short far too young. She was only 20 years old. I met her a couple times in my father’s wharehouse, where she worked. She helped out…  [Read More]

Readings From The Book Of Crap: Christmas Edition

by Bill Brenner December 22, 2011 Uncategorized

I’m coming around to the idea that Christmas isn’t the problem. It’s that this time of year amplifies human stupidity as much as it does human goodness. To a brain starving for more daylight, the stupidity will dwarf the goodness every time. So please indulge me while I point out a few things… Mood music: Principal Lorene Marx of Molin Upper Elementary School in Newburyport, Mass., isn’t letting her students get into the giving spirit because…  [Read More]

R.I.P., Karen LaPierre

by Bill Brenner December 19, 2011 Faith

I’m sad to hear that Haverhill resident Karen LaPierre was killed yesterday morning by an alleged drunk driver. Mood music: Here’s what happened, as told by Eagle-Tribune reporter Mike LaBella: Karen LaPierre, who with her husband Bill LaPierre ran the Angelo Petrozzelli Food Pantry at Sacred Hearts Church, was standing behind her 2010 Ford Taurus parked in front of 55 South Main St. at 5:20 a.m. Police said she was struck from behind by a 2003 Nissan…  [Read More]

Working In Fast Food Doesn’t Make You A Failure

by Bill Brenner December 6, 2011 Uncategorized

An old friend of mine suggested the other day that her life has been a “full-circle fail” because she works for a fast-food chain. Here’s why I think she’s anything but a failure. Mood music: http://youtu.be/7B–3cId-YE One of the things I admire about my friend is that she’s so dedicated to her kids. When she suggested in a Facebook post that she has wasted the last several years caring for her kids and parents and…  [Read More]

Teddy Roosevelt Did It All. What’s Your Excuse?

by Bill Brenner October 27, 2011 Courage

Today is Teddy Roosevelt’s birthday, which I bring up because his is the ultimate story about staring adversity in the face, grinning and spitting in its eye. Mood music: TR was a sickly boy whose asthma often left him struggling for breath. He could have used that as an excuse early on to avoid life’s big challenges. Instead, he lifted weights obsessively and built himself into a bull of a man who would live what…  [Read More]

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