My daughter Pauline is at the age where she is right in the middle of things, raising her children and also looking out for her elderly parents. Of the two, her mother and I probably are the tougher job. Nicole and I are both 75, and she is already in a memory care unit at …
In the end, it’s about running the race to the end Read More »
Some years back, I had a friend who had the same dream as millions of other American boys. He wanted to be the next Mickey Mantle, and even though he never played for his high school team, he was apparently impressive enough in summer baseball that the Baltimore Orioles offered him a contract to play …
ASU’s Martinez has friends, family rooting for him Read More »
It isn’t often that I find myself even partially agreeing with Donald Trump on anything. I say partially because Trump goes way too far, but his attacks on the Fourteenth Amendment might have some reasonableness in one part of it. Section. 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the …
What’s the most important secondary characteristic a person can have? If you figure that primary characteristics would include honor, honesty, compassion and a lack of self-centeredness among other things, I think I would put a sense of humor high up on the secondary list. More than half a century ago, I had two male friends …
Sixteen years ago … It is hard for me to believe that just two days ago, on a lovely Friday in the south of France, I stood on one side of the Lot River and took this picture of this village. Saint-Cirq-Lapopie is just a little town in the mountains, but the view is truly …
OK, it’s time for a surprise. Perhaps a shock. I’m going to say something nice about Donald Trump. Sure it’s only sort of nice and the purpose is to set up something I considerfar worse, but hey. Take it where you can get it. I do not believe Trump’s repost of some idiot’s screed on …
I originally wrote this in the spring of 2009, a time in which I thought we could be very proud of ourselves as Americans. We had become the first major country to elected someone from a minority of 15 percent or less as our leader. The racists among us had been beaten, but they fought …
A close friend of mine went to a job fair a few years back. He’s got a job, which is better than a lot of us can say these days, but he was looking to see if maybe he could find something better. His current job doesn’t provide health insurance, and it’s costing him a …
What is America? Who are we as Americans? What’s the most important thing about our country? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for quite some time now, and it’s one I’ve written about in this space. What concerns me most about it is that our “republic, if you can keep it,” as Ben Franklin …
“They say it was a shocking sight, After the field was won; For many thousand bodies here lay rotting in the sun; But things like that, you know, must be … after a famous victory.” AFTER BLENHEIM, Robert Southey I wonder why it is that the English have always been so much more eloquent in …
