“What a drag it is getting old …” When Mick Jagger sang “Mother’s Little Helper” in the summer of 1966, he was lamenting a young mother in her 30s who couldn’t make it through her day without the help of pills. I was 16 that summer, and there’s no way I can explain how or …
I rarely learn anything from Facebook. Oh, I have been exposed to lots of information about what a wonderful place Sarasota, Florida, is. My longtime friend Christine Miller works for the city’s PR department and she does an excellent job. I’ll definitely visit someday. Except for that, though, most of what people seem to be posting these …
IT’S RARELY THE LOUDEST VOICES THAT TEACH US THE MOST Read More »
I wonder if anyone not named Dylan wrote more and better songs evoking the zeitgeist than Paul Simon. As the ’60s unfolded, he gave us “Sounds of Silence.” “… and the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls …” And as they ended, with the horror of assassinations, a futile war and …
AFTER 48 YEARS, “AMERICAN TUNE” STILL SAYS SO MUCH Read More »
I can’t believe I used to take politics seriously. Now I don’t know if there’s anyone left in Washington I can take seriously at all except for my younger brother, and he’s too intelligent to be a politician. Ever since I saw Newt Gingrich shut down the government because he didn’t get to sit up …
I’m getting sick and tired of the way this country has changed in the last 20 years, and not the least of which is that we seem to revel in wallowing in the past. We are less than a month away from the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and of course there …
Editor’s note: This is a topic I first visited when I was nearing my 60th birthday 12 years ago. *** What would you do if you knew you had a year to live? Would you walk away from all your responsibilities and spend 12 months doing everything on your “bucket list?” Would you do things …
“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 …
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 …
LET’S GET BACK TO BASICS AND NOT EAT OUR SEED CORN Read More »
I wrote this six years ago, when the national debt was lower. It may still work. Let’s get rid of the national debt. Whatever it is — $18 trillion, $19 trillion — let’s just make up our mind right now that we’re going to get rid of it. My guess is we could do it …
One of the closest things to a perfect movie I ever saw was “Breaking Away” in 1979. People who remember it will see it as one of the better American films about bicycling, concluding with a stirring finish in Indiana University’s “Little 500” bike race. But there was so much more to it than that. …
