Unintended Consequences

Unintended Consequences In the US health care system, the people are represented by three separate yet equally important groups; the doctors who treat patients, the employers who offer health care benefits and the insurance companies who administer them.  This is their story.  Donque Donque (start Law and Order theme song) Actually, many people wish that…

Read More

Clean Plate Club Murder Mystery: Chapter 36

The next day was bright and sunny.  The working world must have been elated that this perfect day fell on a Saturday.  The beach would be crowded with body surfers and beach volleyball, and the bike path full of bikers and roller bladers.  But this was shaping up to be an intense work day for…

Read More

Naming Rights

I am currently trying to write a murder mystery, not because I have a great plot line in mind, or a deep roiling well of family dysfunction and tragedy to draw from, but mostly because I want the naming rights.  I figure I have very limited opportunities to name things – my children, pets, maybe…

Read More

Clean Plate Club Murder Mystery: Chapter 35

It was now about 5:00 and I was beat. I desperately wanted to avoid talking with Simba today – I needed at least an evening to collect my thoughts and figure out how to approach this fragile woman. This was the type of strategy session that Ralph and Fanny loved, but I didn’t want to…

Read More

He/She/Ze

(This fanagram is also available as podcast.  Click on podcast in the category menu at the right.) I first ran into the pronoun “ze” (pronounced zee) at Frances’ graduation from Grinnell College. In the written material, the third person singular pronoun was always a composite slashed affair of he/she/ze, and similarly the possessive pronoun was…

Read More

Clean Plate Club Murder Mystery: Chapters 33-34

Chapter 33 I left the car in the visitor’s parking lot and crossed the busy street to Sylvia Wister’s studio. The store front windows featured a display of her Family Photography Project with a description of the program. Funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the program provided an opportunity for students to take…

Read More

A Life in Passports

When you turn sixty I suppose that it is inevitable to get misty eyed and look back.  After all, I am standing on what I hope is a threshold (and not a precipice) between middle age and the next phase – which I cannot bear to label “old age” or even “senior citizenship.”  I don’t…

Read More