Middle class … or working class? Back in the first decade of the century, when I was working in Southern California, I attended a conference for media covering business entitled “The Middle Class on Life Support.” Its premise was that it was becoming impossible in many parts of California to live a middle-class lifestyle — …
Farmers have known for a long time that you should never ever eat your seed corn. When the food starts to run out, when hunger pangs get stronger, there is a temptation to reach back into the pantry and start eating the corn that was held back to plant in the spring for the next …
Why on Earth do we still use fireworks to celebrate anything, let alone the Fourth of July? Are we that selfish … or just that clueless? Once was a time — in the not-so-distant past, I suppose — that hearing loud noises in the sky and seeing large displays of various colors gave us a …
“Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you’re in diapers, the next you’re gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul.” Most of us lead three lives. There’s the first one, the one described in the above quote from “The Wonder Years,” although it’s more than memories that stay …
In the course of nearly 25 years of school, I managed to come across some teachers with some odd gimmicks. In the mid ’70s, when I was trying to get my mojo back taking some junior college courses, I signed up for Sociology 101 and met a teacher who gave the final exam on the …
I was reading Vanity Fair in the doctor’s office and I came across the leading man interviews with George Clooney, Matt Damon and Daniel Craig. What fascinated me were the questions, apparently an interview format developed by Marcel Proust. So I thought I would interview myself, using those questions. This is an old post, but …
There is something truly obscene about activity at the top of the economic spectrum these days. I’m going to start out as if I’m attacking big salaries for athletes, but that’s really just an introduction and an example. Shooting guard Bradley Beal has agreed to a contract to remain with the NBA Washington Wizards for …
A guy walks into a bar and says, “Trump is an arsehole.” Another guy says to him, “I resent that.” “Why? Are you a Trump fan?” “No,” the second guy said. “I am an arsehole.” *** In the summer of 1973, John Dean electrified America by using his testimony to lay the Watergate scandals right …
“… and the lonely voice of youth cries, ‘What is truth?’”– JOHNNY CASH, 1968 If there’s one answer I could give to that question, it would be that truth is something almost everyone thinks they know, but very few of us actually do. There are certainly plenty of folks on both sides of the political …
Roger B. Taney. Melville Fuller. William Howard Taft. Unless you’re a serious student of American history, you have probably heard of only one of these three men. And him only because of something outside the context of this comparison. Someday another name will be added to this list. John Roberts. All four men either served …
ROBERTS JOINS THE LIST OF HORRIBLE CHIEF JUSTICES Read More »
