THE SOUL MATE EXPEDITIONS* Have you ever put up 100 posters on a busy city street trying to contact the woman whose phone number you'd lost? * Have you ever buried a beloved friend in the sand dunes near the Atlantic Ocean, fulfilling a request in his Last Will?* Have you ever had an experimental microchip implanted in your brain for the purpose of capturing moving images of your actual dreams?* Have you ever visited the Social Security offices in New York City and had your age changed?* Have you ever been trapped in traffic in the Lincoln Tunnel for over an hour, desperately needing to urinate?* Have you ever wondered what souls actually look like?These are just a few of the compelling and remarkable stories you will find in the collection you are now holding, or possibly staring at on a tablet. Lyle Greenfield's unmistakable "voice" will remain with you long after you've turned the last page and said, out loud, to no one, "What the?"The original stories comprising The Soul Mate Expeditions (first section of this collection) were actually written 20 years ago. If you are reading this in the year 2024 it was 25 years ago. If you are reading this in the year 2099 it was100 years ago and I am dead. You're welcome to visit my gravesite in East Hampton, NY and to make a generous contribution to the East Hampton Food Pantry in my name. Thank you Regarding the novella, "What Vienna Saw," the idea was a spore in my brain going back to 1985 and periodically I would deliver a feverish synopsis to a captive audience over dinner and drinks. Close friends instructed that if I didn't finally commit the story to paper I would be sent to my room without supper. Or drinks. Therefore...As for the Letters to the Editor of The East Hampton Star, I discovered in 1998 that it was the policy of this weekly newspaper to publish every signed letter submitted "with the exception those judged to be proselytizing, an invasion of privacy, libelous, or obscene." This idiosyncratic editorial position, in effect since the 1950s, quickly became a psychogenic discharge valve to me and I took unfair advantage, I fear, writing letters of 1,000 to 2,000 words in length, on any viewpoint, fantasy or personal humiliation I cared to share. More than one devoted reader strongly suggested I put them in a book. And this I have done. Praise for The Soul Mate Expeditions"Greenfield's is a voice that ranges from the absurd to the profound, sometimes translating into the absurdly profound and/or the profoundly absurd--always with a measure of self-deprecation. His wry tone, however, does not conceal his empathy for the human condition and caring for the arts--often reflected in his regular SHOOT column, "Earwitness." He now gives us The Soul Mate Expeditions, a collection of musings and stories that paint a vivid picture of the mind of a writer I've known for 20-plus years."Robert Goldrich, Editor, SHOOT"Lyle puts the lip in solipsism. And yet his stories, mostly about a time and place not so long ago, are soulful indeed." David E. Rattray, Editor, The East Hampton Star"Cleansing my brain of this tragic modern world, I was engaged, provoked and at times laughing out loud to myself... and my dog. Turn off your phone, crack open the window and take the flight of fancy that is Lyle Greenfield's writing." Nancy Atlas, Singer Songwriter Bandleader Producer