My one and only resolution for the coming year — and, in fact, the coming decade: Be more generous.
Not necessarily with my money (my wife and I have a plan in place for that), but with myself.
Continue reading "The plan for 2010" »
Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards, Bernie Madoff … not to mention a stolen presidential election, “Shock and Awe,” and rampant Wall Street avarice.
I think the decade-namers are right: Good riddance to the Naughty Aughts.
Continue reading "Not our finest 10 years" »
Snow, on top of sleet, on top of freezing rain?
On Christmas Eve evening?
How perverse can Mother Nature be?
Continue reading "I won’t stand for this winter storm watch stuff" »
When my dad was a mail carrier, the tips he got from his customers each Christmas — “pops,” he called them — helped him buy our family Christmas. He made a ceremony out of opening the envelopes at the kitchen table each night. We all gathered around as he added up the loot.
Continue reading "Whom do you tip at Christmas?" »
In October 2007 I learned — in spades — that home-schoolers are fierce in their opposition to government intervention.
That education came after I wrote about a Perry Middle School teacher’s bad feeling about a girl pulled out of school by her parents — perhaps, the teacher feared, for the wrong reasons.
Continue reading "Home-schooling a complicated course " »
What do “White Christmas,” “The Christmas Song,” “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!,” “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” “Silver Bells,” “Santa Baby,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” and “Winter Wonderland” all have in common?
Continue reading "Oy to the World" »
I once shot my brother with a BB gun, because he shot me. Our father was displeased in the extreme, and took the guns out of service for a week or so.
Continue reading "Slap the cuffs on me" »
One more possible reason — aside from Christmas spirit and patriotism — why people were so eager to help bring the soldiers of the 1073rd home for Christmas:
The recognition that 100 percent of the sacrifice for our two wars has been borne by about 1 percent of our population.
Continue reading "Our free ride " »
The holiday buffet hors d’oeuvres were enough for lunch. More than enough. Yet, I went for the salads and breads; the soup and chili; the ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy …
Why? because it was there.
Continue reading "What made me do it?" »
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