This painting of me by my adult-long friend Peter Malone shows me at the height of my weight when, like Winston Churchill, I was what the Brits used to call "a quart a day man." Within a year, I passed out from pneumonia, which led to sepsis (blood poisoning) and organ failure.
For four months I went through kidney dialysis, while also suffering Intensive Care Unit psychosis. In other words, I was crazy as a loon.
Maryann Sherry Wagner, my partner since 1977, waited out these afflictions.
I lost 70 pounds in six months
Meanwhile, son "Sammy Wags" was making his way as a musician and bandleader ("Brighton Beat," "Mr. Clifford") and studio co-owner ("The Koop").
And the ICONOCLAST, the literary magazine I started, edit, and continue to publish, continues to find its way in the literary world among people who like a good new-fashioned story.
Did I mention MARLOWE IN THE SOUTH SEAS---my novel? (imaginatively assisted by the many patient Mamaroneck school and public librarians---as an adult I tried to repay the debt by renting the Emelin Theater for its very first series of rock concerts in 1974). The book was helped by my 1970-71 Navy service in Vietnam.
Thank you all for helping me make out of a good and bad environment a life and career.
Luck and health,
Phil.

Every day is a victory!