EVERY DAY IS SATURDAY

A collection of humorous, short essays, extolling the fun of retirement and the delights of grandparenting.

Toward the end of Zezima’s tenure as an editor at Newsday, he was looking forward to retiring, so when the paper offered him a buyout, he jumped at it. However, he continued to write regular columns about whatever strikes his fancy for Hearst Connecticut Media Group and Tribune News Service of Chicago, and this is his fifth volume of essays. His work is filled with chuckles (and a few groaners). His upbeat take on aspects of everyday life offers pleasant distraction from today’s stresses, whether he’s writing about going to the supermarket or about his favorite subject: his five grandchildren. (He revels in his self-appointed role as a fun grandpa, nicknamed “Poppie.”) One essay about his coming down with a persistent “illness that so baffled medical science that it was impervious to prescription medication,” however, seems particularly timely. Indeed, his later riffs on life during the Covid-19 pandemic will strike a chord across all reader demographics—not just his fellow retirees. Although Zezima generally targets only himself with his gentle, free-flowing barbs—in “Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow,” for instance, he decides to give himself a quarantine haircut—he makes an exception when he takes on Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas. In 2020, the latter suggested publicly that elderly people should be willing to sacrifice themselves to keep the economy open during the pandemic. In Zezima’s essay, he humorously highlights his own “contributions” to the economy, enhanced by his continuing good health, and his importance to his wife, children, and their offspring, and concludes: “I trust that you understand why it would be a bad idea for me to sacrifice myself, Lt. Gov. Patrick. If you want to do it, go right ahead.”

An edgy, loving take on current events and family.