Guilty With An Explanation: A Mostly True, Funny and Sad, Memoir About Growing Up and Growing Old

When his parents paid Mark an unexpected visit, they brought along a film projector to show Mark long-lost videos of him and his brother, Robert. In one scene Robert was on a swing, smiling brightly, and in another, Robert was frolicking in the ocean. Mark's face, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. But his fingertips, pushing Robert's swing, were visible, as was the top of his head, while he was being pushed underwater by his dad! These videos confirmed what Mark already knew-that Robert was clearly the favorite, despite Mark's many accomplishments. In spite of this reality, Mark persevered and grew up a happy child in Brooklyn in the 1950s and 1960s, a time of innocence.

Mark married his childhood sweetheart, Diana, but no one would have blamed Diana for changing her mind when Mark slipped and fell down while breaking the glass during their wedding ceremony. Mark moved away from his birthplace, Brooklyn, and Diana reluctantly went with him, literally crying all the way from New York to Maryland, their new home.

Mark loved sports and especially his New York Football Giants. At a couples retreat, Mark brought along his own knobs from his TV to watch his beloved New York Giants, after finding out that the hotel removed the TV knobs to make couples communicate better. Years later Diana walked more than a mile in the snow to get home, after her car had a flat tire. When Mark asked her why she hadn't called him, she told him that it was Sunday, and she knew Mark wouldn't leave the Giants game to come get her. That was the day Mark fell in love with his wife all over again.

An amusing story of love and friendship, Guilty With An Explanation not only provides many laughs but also makes the reader contemplate life and how it should be lived.