One of the few pleasures I have left is going to the farmers’ market downtown on Sundays. The other ones I used to enjoy are gone for the most part. Sex is too unsanitary, too strenuous, and too exhausting. Outrunning the police is too difficult now. All the food I like is prohibited by my doctors and the alcohol I like to drink is too expensive. I love going to the farmers market for the girl watching smorgasbord and for Gary’s Turkey burgers. My good friend Gary Thornhill sells several sauces, Horseradish, chicken breast sandwiches and the best turkey burgers I have ever eaten.

The final gun sounded on old number 88 the recently. The great, great tight end John Mackey of the Baltimore Colts died after battling a number of health problems in recent years. It is indeed a sad day for fans of the Baltimore Colts and I was a fan growing up in this city. I had a plastic blue and white Colts helmet when I was a little boy.

I have always had ambiguous feelings about the Fourth of July, Independence Day. As an African-American all this celebration of freedom and independence has a hollow ring to it for me.

Recently the keeper of the imperial wars, President Barack Obama announced that he is reducing the number of American troops bogged down in the nation’s longest lasting war.