We used to think Woodstock was a huge deal with its 400,000 people who showed up for its three-day music festival in 1969. Well, an estimated 460,000 showed up for an annual motorcycle festival last summer at a little city in western South Dakota — during a pandemic. This year, they’re expecting 700,000 bikers in …
If you could remove one thing from the world, what would it be? When I saw this question posted on Facebook, I found myself wondering about the scale of the answers. A number of people said they would remove hate, which would definitely be a good thing, although a massive undertaking. Others who didn’t go …
It was about 20 years ago that I had a wonderful tomato garden behind our home in California. I had eight plants, and in a wonderful California summer I harvested 240 tomatoes. My work schedule changed the next year and I never did the garden again until this year in Georgia. Well, either I’ve lost …
When the going gets weird … the weird turn pro. Mark and Patricia gained fame and esteem from the Trumpanzees last year when they “guarded” their suburban St. Louis home from Black Lives Matter protestors who were just walking past on the street. Their eagerness to flaunt their guns made them right-wing heroes of Donald …
“It used to be I’d go places and people would say, ‘Where are you from?’ I’d say ‘California’ and they’d be, ‘Ah gee, aren’t you lucky.’ Now it’s ridicule.” Mervin Field started polling Californians since shortly after World War II. In fact, there may not have been anyone who understood Californians better than Field, whose …
We have a big problem in this country. It isn’t left or right, Trump or no-Trump. In fact, it isn’t one particular person, issue or political party. We have lost the distinction between liberty and license. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that half the country doesn’t even know the meaning of the word, …
“Not one of us ever grows up to be what he intended to be. Not one of us fulfills his own expectations. We are all our own children, in that sense. At some point, somewhere, we have to stop making demands.” Sometimes we find profundities where we least expect them. I was sailing through my …
Some of the fondest memories of my childhood came in a library. I always thought it was an old Carnegie Library, one of the 2,509 built in the U.S. with grants from the richest man in the world. It turns out Crestline, Ohio, wasn’t on the list, but the library there — whoever built it …
“Two girls for every boy …” Are there still summer songs? I don’t know, but if there aren’t songs that sing of the sweetness of summer, of sunny days, balmy nights and the girls on the beach, it would be a real shame. Because there’s nothing like a summer song to help you rejoice in …
Name 15 record albums that have most affected your life? This game looked like fun when I saw it on Facebook some years back. Here‘s my contribution. Each selection has its own story… 1. “High Tides and Green Grass (Greatest Hits),” the Rolling Stones — From 1965, the first album I ever owned, great early …
