This was originally written nearly 20 years ago on another site in a search for a viable middle in American politics. It has actually been published on this site before, but with the Republican Party heading to a cliff like lemmings, there are things in it that might be worth noting. *** First published in …
Poor David Brooks. Imagine having to spend $78 for lunch at Newark International Airport and getting just a hamburger, french fries and a double-shot of whiskey. Poor man. Uh, Dave? How many double shots was that? Because the actual meal with a soft drink instead of the alcoholic beverage was only $17. Must have been …
A hundred years or so ago, most Americans did not live in cities. A majority of Americans spent their entire lives living in one place, many of them never traveling more than 50 miles from where they were born. Even if they did move somewhere else when they came of age, they were usually able …
“Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym.”— WOODY ALLEN Whenever I write anything to suggest that the way we educate our children is less than perfect, there is always at least one teacher who comes out of the woodwork and suggests that my feet stink, my parents weren’t married and Jesus …
A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TEACHERS AND THOSE WHO TEACH Read More »
I love listening to Harry Chapin. I saw him twice in concert, and I think at one time or another I’ve owned nearly all of his albums. He died at the age of 38, which cost the world another 30-40 years of great songs. Maybe even more if Chapin had been as prolific as his …
NOT ALL THE ONES THAT DON’T WORK ARE SAD MEMORIES Read More »
It was late in the afternoon on a Thursday. For me, at least. When the phone rang, it was already early in the morning Friday, September 19th, 2008. I answered … and for a few seconds, all I could hear was a baby crying. “Hello?: Then a voice came on the line. “It’s your granddaughter,” …
Not everyone dreams big dreams. Heck, not everyone dreams sensible dreams.. When my friend Mick was in his late teens and people would ask him what he wanted to be when he grew up, he had a one-word answer. “Pregnant.” And this was seven years before Joan Rivers came out with her movie “Rabbit Test,” …
OK, boomer. When I was a kid in the late 1950s, my grandfather used to tell me how various things had been so much better when he was my age. For reference, the years he was describing were when Roosevelt was president. Teddy Roosevelt. Or as the world’s oldest train conductor in the movie “Finders …
Happy people don’t hate. People who are satisfied or at least optimistic about their own lives spend very little time angry with other people. They devote very little effort trying to make other people unhappy, and they lose very little sleep thinking about what might have been. There were two terms popular when I was …
Only yesterday? How about yesterday plus 22 years? Have we really changed that much? I spent several weeks in England and France in the summer of 2001, much of the time in Oxford and Paris, with a couple of days in London. It was about two months before Osama bin Laden’s attack on America and …
