Interviews With Three Expert in Periodontics

By far the most interesting aspect of my work as an editor in the dental industry is the chance to interact with key opinion leaders (KOLs) shaping the profession. For the May/June issue of Inside Dentistry, I interviewed with three accomplished voices in periodontics and patient care: Mia L. Geisinger, Katrina M. Sanders, and Michael Sonick.

These experts discussed the importance of prevention, individualized care, collaboration, and the relationships that make effective patient care possible. We also explored topics ranging from oral-systemic health and advances in diagnostics to the evolving role of hygiene teams and the importance of communication and human connection in clinical practice.

May/June 2026 issue of Inside Dentistry

 

My interviews are published in the May/June issue Inside Dentistry, available here.

Minor League Baseball Championship Teams

It was a spectacular ending to the 2025 minor league baseball season. The Brooklyn Cyclones won the High A South Atlantic League Championship, and the West Michigan Whitecaps won the High A Midwest League Championship.

This was extra special for me, because I was lucky enough to catch A LOT of Cyclones games in Brooklyn this year, including an unforgettable Pride Night with 10 amazing friends. I also got to see several Whitecaps games in Grand Rapids, including two awesome outings with my sister and her life partner.

And I can’t forget the Cedar Rapids Kernels, who had an incredible season and were tough competitors in the Midwest League Championship. Watching my nephew Kyle Jones play for the Kernels two years back with my sister Peggy was one of my all-time highlights as a baseball fan. I’ll never forget those moments, either.

What a season. I am already counting the days until next spring! I am hoping to attend more games in Grand Rapids, and hopefully some Wichita Wind Surge games as well!

Brooklyn Cyclones and West Michigan Whitecaps

My Favorite Band That Isn’t the Stones

Spottiswoode and His Enemies warmed up a chilly April evening with a rousing show at Joe’s Pub! I had the pleasure of attending with my friend George, and we were sitting literally right in front of the stage. This gave us a great vantage point to watch these gifted and talented musicians. The night kicked off with “Salvation,” rolled into “Drunk,” and continued with a mix of newer songs, old favorites, and deep cuts. During songs from the “English Dream” album, vintage video projections added an extra layer to the performance — such a cool multimedia touch. Highlights of the set included “You Will Rise Again,” “Building A Road,” and many others, but the emotional peak of the night was “In the Pouring Rain.” Jonathan’s heartfelt dedication to Riley before the song made it even more powerful. After the show, we had a chance to chat briefly with some of the band members. It was especially heartwarming to see how warmly they interacted with the younger fans who came to see the show. It was a truly special night all around.

Spottiswoode and His EnemiesSpottiswoode and His Enemies Joe's Pub

Spottiswoode and His Enemies

Recent shows on and off Broadway

Some of the most recent shows I’ve seen on Broadway, and Off-Broadway, include “Maybe Happy Ending,” “Death Becomes Her,” “Our Town” with Jim Parsons, and the hilariously funny “Shit. Meet. Fan.,” which included Debra Messing, Neil Paatrick Harris, and Tramell Tillman (from the “Severance” series). “Ragtime” and “Urinetown” were part of the New York City Center “Encores” series. The show that moved me the most was “Gypsy” with Audra McDonald.

First half of 2024 theater

Lots more shows for the first half of 2024! These include Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Off-Off-Broadway. Out of them all, “Oh Mary!” was my favorite by far. I saw the production in the West Village before it moved to Broadway. The only thing that would have made seeing “Oh Mary!” better would have been going it with someone! But attending alone was better than not seeing it at all. For “Hamilton,” it was my FOURTH TIME going after winning the lottery to see it for 10 bucks each time!

Fred Michmershuizen First half of 2024 theater

Robert Moses: The Power Broker

The recent demise of congestion pricing in Manhattan got me thinking that cars always win. If you’ve ever wondered why New York City lacks a mass transit system befitting the world-class metropolis it is meant to be, why tolls are still being charged to cross bridges many generations after construction has been paid for and that those tolls keep going up, or why getting to JFK airport on a weekday afternoon is such a hellish nightmare, look no further than Robert Moses, the master builder who controlled most of our public infrastructure for many long decades. With the possible exception of J. Edgar Hoover at the FBI, no one individual has ever held such unbridled autocratic authority over so many people and so many resources for so long.

Robert Moses book reviewUndisputably, Robert Moses was THE dominant figure in New York City from the mid-1920s to the late 1960s. He met the Queen of England and the Pope. Mayors, Governors, and Presidents came and went, but Robert Moses remained. Several Mayors and even FDR himself tried to oust Moses but failed. At various points in his long career, Moses was Chairman of the New York State, Long Island, and New York City parks departments; Chairman of the Emergency Public Works Commission; Chairman of the New York State Power Authority; chief of the New York City Planning Commission; President of the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair; and Chairman of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority. Despite holding all these quasi-government posts, he was never elected to any office. In 1934 he ran for Governor of New York State as a Republican and lost in a landslide.

His list of accomplishments is long. He built Jones Beach State Park, Jacob Riis Park, Orchard Beach, numerous power dams, many low-income housing projects, countless state parks, countless city parks, and the Central Park Zoo. He was instrumental in the construction of Shea Stadium, the United Nations headquarters, and Lincoln Center. He built the Henry Hudson, Grand Central, Northern State, Southern State, Taconic, and Meadowbrook State parkways, among others. He built the Triborough, Verrazano-Narrows, Whitestone, and Throgs Neck bridges, and many more. He also built the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (the BQE), the Staten Island Expressway, and others. In short, much of New York City and New York State, and especially the way we get from Point A to Point B, is because of Robert Moses.

But in addition to being a builder, Moses was also a destroyer. He razed many neighborhoods and displaced countless numbers of their residents. The Cross Bronx Expressway was — and still is, to this very day — especially cruel. So was the construction of the Gowanus Expressway, which tore through the Sunset Park neighborhood in Brooklyn, destroying a community. According to the book, Moses refused the pleas of local residents to build the highway over Second Avenue rather than Third, to the demise of these families. Surprisingly, Moses didn’t always get his way. Instead of a Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, he wanted a bridge, which would have obliterated large chunks of Lower Manhattan. He also intended to build a Mid-Manhattan Expressway across 30th Street, and he wanted to run a highway through Manhattan’s West Village and Washington Square Park. Imagine New York City today if Moses had succeeded in those projects? And through his stubborn intransigence, Moses also had a hand in the loss of the city’s beloved Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team!

All of this and much more is described in The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, the massive biography by Robert Caro. This book, which is thick and heavy enough to be used as a doorstopper, was published in the early 1970s, when Moses was still alive. It has long been considered the definitive biography of Moses. It won a Pulitzer Prize. But I think it is a flawed work. In my view, such a lengthy account (this one clocks in at 1,200 pages, which took me almost three months to finish!) should cover everything about its subject. However, there was nothing in The Power Broker about Jane Jacobs and her epic battle with Moses over the expressway he wanted to build through the West Village. And there was not enough about the public housing built by Robert Moses. Nevertheless, despite its flaws, I do consider The Power Broker to be a must-read for anyone interested in 20th Century American politics and, more specifically, infrastructure.

My favorite sections of the book included everything that had to do with Al Smith, the Roman Catholic governor of New York State who ran unsuccessfully for President in 1928 (losing to Herbert Hoover). According to the book, Smith was the only governor, the only politician really, whom Moses ever looked up to and the only one he showed respect to. I also learned a lot in this book about Fiorello LaGuardia, the larger-than-life Mayor of New York in the 1930s and 40s, who had grand visions of his own. I also learned a great deal in this book about the flawed reporting published by the New York Times and many other newspapers about Moses, who in addition to being a master builder was also a master of spinning a narrative.

Here are a few more notes about Robert Moses, according to the book:

  • He was physically imposing, big, tall, and muscular.
  • He attended Yale and was on the swimming team.
  • As an adult he went swimming out in the ocean, so far out that he could not be seen from shore.
  • He did not drive himself but rather was chauffeured around in the back of a town car.
  • He went deaf! (This was fitting because he never listened to anyone anyway.)
  • He had a wife, Mary, and two daughters. A month after Mary died of old age he got remarried to a younger woman, also named Mary and her nickname was Mary II.

According to the book, it was New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller who finally ousted Moses from power. The man who had once wielded so much control finally died in 1981, broken, lonely and penniless.

If you ask any New Yorker today what they think about Robert Moses, the reaction will almost invariably be negative. In my view that is because of his biggest flaw, which was his failure to envision a world that did not revolve around people getting from one place to another in single-passenger cars.

Rolling Stones at MetLife Stadium on May 23, 2024

If anyone could have predicted back in 1989, the first time I saw the Rolling Stones live, in East Troy, Wisconsin, that in the year 2024 the Stones would STILL BE HERE, and touring with a brand-new album under their belts to boot, I would never have believed them. When I saw the Steel Wheels show back in ’89, I was certain that this was my one and only chance I would get to see the Stones, ever. The fact that this band is still here, still playing, is an unimaginable feat. They have been performing live since before I was even born, and I am no spring chicken myself. We are so blessed to still have the Stones after all these years.

The Thursday, May 23, 2024, show at MetLife Stadium was one of the best, if not THE best of all the Stones shows I have yet seen. Not only were the lads in fine form musically, putting on a fantastic performance, it also turned out to be a wonderful overall EXPERIENCE. This was my 20th time.

My most recent show had been May 11 in Vegas, which was also fantastic, but in my view the Stones were even better tonight. Mick had more swagger and was more enthusiastic and had more flamboyant gestures. During Miss You he gave us some extra what’s-a-matter-wich-you-boy’s, in addition to his howlig and harmonica playing.  Keith was in top form as well.  His guitar playing was splendid, especially on You Got the Silver, Gimme Shelter, Sympathy, and Jumping Jack Flash. Best of all, you can see they are really enjoying themselves up there! Those 60-foot screens don’t lie.

Gene’s favorite numbers included Get Off My Cloud, Angry, and Jumping Jack Flash. My favorite this night was Miss You. Gene and I were both impressed by Chanel Haynes on Gimme Shelter. Gene remarked that he was especially moved by Steve Jordan’s drumming and Keith’s overall joyousness.

Rolling StonesThis was my first time seeing the Stones with Lucky Dip tickets. I had originally intended to attend this show with my friend Bill and go with him to meet Shidoobeans for the first time, but sadly Bill threw his back out that morning and had to reluctantly cancel.  Our mutual friend Gene saved the day, driving us from Brooklyn.  I am so very glad to have had the chance to go with Gene, who is also a lifelong Stones fan and — an eternal optimist — who has seen them many times over the years. Not only that, but Gene met both Mick and Keith and many others associated with the band over the years, and he has many war stories to share.  For tonight, Gene timed everything perfectly, as we got there just before 8 pm as the opening act, Jon Batiste, was just taking the stage. Our LD seats were on the side of the stage in the lower bowl, section 142 to be exact. Although these seats were labeled “limited view” on our paper tickets, we were both thrilled with our proximity. While we did not have a great view of Steve Jordan, we were close to the runway on Ronnie’s side of the stage and the large screens helped immensely. From this angle we could see not only the band, but the large and enthusiastic crowd. What a festive night this was. The crowd was in such good spirits.

The vote song was Wild Horses. I had voted for Depending On You in honor of my dear friend Steve Couse, of blessed memory. The other choices this night were Worried About You and Fool to Cry.

Jon Batiste was the opening act, and his performance was fantastic. He had a full entourage with him, but he also performed several numbers by himself on piano. He wore a sparkly gold suit and a beaming smile. One of his songs was When the Saints Go Marching In!

After Jon Batiste finished Gene and I had time for a pit stop, a visit to the refreshment stand, AND a stop by the merch stand for t-shirts, where there was absolutely no line, and we were back to our seats in plenty of time. Thanks to Gene’s strategic parking decision and driving, we were on the highway back to Brooklyn in no time. Up until today the weather forcast had called for rain, but Gene insisted that we would definitely not get any rain — and he was right. On the drive home, the full moon was shining on us.

Rolling Stones in Las Vegas on May 11, 2024

A lot of the fun of traveling to a Rolling Stones show from out of town is running into fellow concertgoers who are also from out of town. My friend Craig and I both flew to Las Vegas from the East Coast on Friday night — me from New York City, and him from Washington, D.C. — for the show on Saturday, May 11, 2024, at Allegiant Stadium. We spent the day Saturday checking out the strip. We stayed at Mandalay Bay, and we walked from there to Luxor, Excalibiur, New York, New York, MGM Grand, Paris, and Caesars Palace. All along the way when we weren’t playing the slots we saw many, and I mean a great very many, people wearing Stones tee shirts. Most of the wearers were Baby Boomer age. But some had children or even grandchildren in tow.  We usually nodded to one another or said hi and sometimes we chatted each other up about where we’re from. People were in Vegas from all over the country and even from overseas. In an elevator we ran into a couple from Australia who were going to Seattle next to catch the show there.

Craig and I went for an early dinner but found that most of the places already had long waits! (Note to anyone traveling from out of town for a show: If you plan to have dinner beforehand anywhere near the venue, be sure to go plenty early, because every restaurant in the vicinity is sure to be packed!) We kept looking and found a pizza place, where we were among many fellow diners also in town to see the Stones. Two in particular caught my eye. It was a man with a younger man who looked like his son. Both were wearing Stones tees and big smiles. They were absolutely glowing. They were talking to each other the whole time, not on their phones, and they were clearly enjoying each other’s company and experiencing this event together.

Getting to and from Allegiant Stadium for the concert was a breeze. We simply walked across the bridge, which the local cops had closed to vehicular traffic, from Mandalay Bay. There were lots of people coming in, but the lines moved quickly, and things went efficiently.  I guess Vegas is accustomed to large events like this. This is the same stadium where the most recent Super Bowl was played! On the way over the bridge, the late afternoon desert sun was blazing. Several water stations were set up along the way. Once we were on site, the biggest crowds were the lines for merch. I would have bought a tee to add to my collection, but the lines were too long!

Rolling Stones Las Vegas 2024

It was my 18th Stones show and Craig’s first. In the song vote, I chose All Down the Line and Craig wanted — and got —You Got Me Rocking. (The other two songs up for vote this night were Sad Sad Sad and Live With Me.) Craig also wanted — and got — Sympathy for the Devil and Honky Tonk Women, and he also wanted — but did not get — something from the Steel Wheels album. He predicted, correctly, that Start Me Up would be the first song.

Our seats were in the 300 level, Row A. I chose those seats because I wanted to be in the front row of a section. I could have easily stood and danced and moved and grooved through the entire show, but it’s scary up so high! Both Craig and I were a little bit afraid of the heights, and we chose to stay in our seats for most of the show, not only out of fear of falling but also because we did not want to block the view of anyone behind us who might also be sitting.

We chatted up the folks on each side of us, of course. The gentleman to my left said he had been to see many Stones concerts over the years starting in 1972. He said he still remembers when the song Satisfaction came out when he was 16! To Craig’s right was a couple from Vegas. Her name was Angie! It was her first Stones show, and she definitely wanted them to perform “my song” but sadly it was not in the cards this evening.

The Las Vegas show did offer a few surprises. Two songs, Let’s Spend the Night Together and Like a Rolling Stone, made their 2024 tour debuts. The next surprise was Keith doing TWO songs at this show after only performing one on the first three shows of this tour. He started with You Got the Silver followed by Little T&A, also known as She’s My Little Rock ’n’ Roll. Keith was in fine form. Craig remarked to me after the show that he looks so happy playing music.

They did Angry and Mess It Up from the new album, the latter of which sounded a bit messy but that’s totally OK with me. I wish they would add Bite My Head Off from the new album to the set. I was sure that would be the new You Got Me Rocking, and I am flabbergasted that they are not performing that yet! The only song that did not sound all that great, in my view, was Get Off My Cloud.  But Miss You and Paint It Black were both flawless. And Jumping Jack Flash never sounded better.

Mick’s stage banter included asking where everybody was from, and he also said that he and Keith came to Vegas for the first time in 1964, not to perform but to gamble. He said they stayed at the Flamingo and that he lost lots of money but tonight he was going to try to win it back.

Mick played harmonica on Miss You and on Like a Rolling Stone and, and he played guitar on several other songs including You Can’t Always Get What You Want.

For me one of the highlights of the show was Gimme Shelter, with Chanel Haynes. Chanel was fantastic, offering not only astounding vocals but facial expressions and physical gestures that were so very powerful. She put her whole body, voice, and soul into the song. Chanel returned for Sweet Sounds of Heaven, the first of two encore songs. I think Jagger added a new lyric, something along the lines of “Let the old feel like they are young” and hearing this addition to the song moved me greatly. Yes, the Stones are older than the rocks in the Grand Canyon, but they are indeed young. In my view, this tour is a triumph, especially because they are promoting a new album, Hackney Diamonds, and a solid effort at that. Even more impressive, is that they recorded most of it this very year. I can’t wait for the follow up to Hackney Diamonds. Meanwhile, as long as the Stones are still touring, I will be there and wearing a lips and tongue tee to boot.  I’m going to FOUR more shows this tour alone!

The Vegas setlist:

  1. Start Me Up
  2. Get Off My Cloud
  3. Let’s Spend the Night Together
  4. Angry
  5. Like A Rolling Stone
  6. You Got Me Rocking (vote song)
  7. Mess It Up
  8. Tumbling Dice
  9. You Can’t Always Get What You Want
  10. You Got the Silver (Keith on vocal)
  11. Little T&A (Keith on vocal)
  12. Sympathy for the Devil
  13. Honky Tonk Women
  14. Miss You
  15. Gimme Shelter
  16. Paint It, Black
  17. Jumping Jack Flash
  18. Sweet Sounds of Heaven (encore)
  19. Satisfaction (encore)

The opening band was The Pretty Reckless, featuring a female singer. I thought the band was fantastic, and she was charming. It must be difficult to open for the Stones, especially if you are a band that most audience members are not familiar with. I thought they did a nice, respectable set. I *always* attend the opening set. After all, if the Stones have invited a band to play on the bill with them, I am going to give that band some respect.

Before the show started, I told Craig that I was not going to take my phone out too much because there would be lots of pictures and videos posted to social media, as there always are, and sure enough, there were indeed. There was one post in particular that really made my day! Remember the father-son duo from the pizza place? They posted selfies from the show and, get this, it turns out they had Lucky Dip tickets and got Pit!

What a night, what a show.

See you at MetLife!

The Hemingses of Monticello

This is a difficult story to comprehend, but research by Annette Gordon-Reed and many others in recent decades has it well documented. Thomas Jefferson fathered SEVEN children with Sally Hemings. Three of the seven died in infancy, but the others lived to adulthood and some of them had descendants of their own, many of whom are alive today. Sally Hemings was one of hundreds of human beings enslaved in Virginia by the author of the Declaration of Independence. Sally Hemings was the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson’s widow, Martha (Wayles) Jefferson, and she was therefore the aunt of Jefferson’s two white daughters and was roughly their same age. The four of them plus Sally’s enslaved brother James Hemings lived together for several years in Paris after the Revolutionary War, while Jefferson was serving as an ambassador. When Jefferson was recalled to New York City to serve as Secretary of State in President Washington’s cabinet, they traveled back together by ship, while Sally Hemings was pregnant.

Thomas Jefferson had married Martha Wayles, who was a young widow, in 1772. Upon their wedding Jefferson received a dowry that included a plantation and many slaves, including a whole family of Hemingses, including the matriarch, Elizabeth Hemings (Sally’s mother), who had 12 children of her own, including 10 fathered by John Wayles (Thomas Jefferson’s wife’s father)! All of this is quite difficult to keep track of, and thankfully the author of “The Hemingses of Monticello” has included a family tree.

Martha died in 1782, three years before Jefferson went to Paris. This book covers not only Jefferson’s years in Paris, but also his time in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and ultimately his retirement to Monticello. When Jefferson died on the fourth of July in 1826, he was deeply in debt, and most of the enslaved were auctioned off right on the front lawn of Jefferson’s mansion.

The Hemingses of Monticello

As I mentioned, it’s hard to get my mind around all of this. I imagine it might even have been difficult for people in the early 19th century to fathom, as well. It’s not surprising that for the better part of 200 years, few people believed the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. But this author, Annette Gordon-Reed, has the receipts. This is a well-researched book, full of modern-day insights. This is not a “let’s beat up on Thomas Jefferson because he owned slaves” book. Nor is it a “this is all OK because that’s just the way it was back then” book. The author puts the events she describes into context of the times, while at the same time offering a more up-to-date perspective. She explains a great deal, and at other times she offers plausible explanations for questions that may never be answered.

Thomas Jefferson is the author of our country’s founding document and its key phrase, that all men are created equal. Yet he was an active participant in an entrenched system based on white supremacy, exploitation, and unpaid forced labor. Four score and seven years later, our nation’s sixteenth President would invoke Jefferson’s words in an effort to bring our country back together during a war that was fought, yes, to end slavery once and for all. Our nation’s history is a complicated one. Those who founded our country were indeed heroes, but all heroes are flawed.

I’m so very glad to have had the opportunity to read this book. I learned so much, and I want to learn more. This is not just the story of Jefferson and Sally Hemings, rather it is the story of the entire Hemings family, spanning many generations.

This is an important book.