Character Snapshot: Abraham Goldberg, Esquire

In the long there was a smattering of unused picnic tables, each with a charcoal grill at one end. One old man had taken up residency at a picnic table, but not sitting on the benches. He sat on the end opposite the charcoal grill in a rickety lawn chair. He was pecking away on a laptop methodically. A copy of the New York Times Sunday edition lay next to Abe Goldberg's laptop. He tapped out his fourth letter to the editor this month. He always signed them Abraham Goldberg, Esquire, although he was not currently nor had ever been an attorney. He believed it was a term of respect that he deserved. Last year he wrote 51 letters to the editor, and one letter to the circulation manager when his copy of the Times arrived Monday morning rather than Sunday afternoon. Janie would never meet Abe Goldberg. He died after writing six more letters to the New York Times, six months to the day after the passing of his wife.