There is nothing like a visit to Bed, Bath and Beyond to restore one’s confidence in American ingenuity. I’m not talking about the whiz bang intelligence required to send a man to Mars, invent the Internet, or thwart Russian hackers. I’m talking about the everyday can-do spirit of ordinary Americans who tinker in their…
Read MoreDefinition: Sloth /slôTH,slōTH/ noun 1. disinclination to action or labor; spiritual apathy Symbolized by a Lazy Boy in the living room. 2. A slow moving tropical American mammal Derived from the activity level of a human in a Lazy Boy My anxiety spikes as the burly delivery men settle the Lazy Boy into my…
Read MoreI hate bananas. Actually, hate is inadequate to describe the depth of my feeling. So is despise, detest, abhor, loathe and revile. Bananas assault all of my senses. The wet sticky sound when you eat them reminds me of dogs licking themselves. The smell gags me. The cloying drape of the peel makes me shudder.…
Read More1. Respect I had heard about athletes being “in the zone.” I particularly remember the Kansas City A’s hall of famer George Brett talking about those out-of-the-blue days when a baseball inexplicably looked as big as a melon. Brett just couldn’t help but hit a home run and “go downtown.” It never occurred to me…
Read MoreEvery month I make the 6-hour drive from the south shore of Lake Superior to the southern tip of Lake Michigan. Except for Marquette at its northern outset and Milwaukee to the south, the route runs through rural country. I usually travel with an audio book, but on the last trip, my Great Course on…
Read MoreWhen I first wore my necklace, I made sure the new bead was discreetly hidden under my shirt collar. It would have blended well with the others. But it was uniquely mine and I didn’t want to share it just yet. Plus I had worked so hard to harvest it. It was my gallstone, my…
Read MoreDear Sol Hurok, I know nothing about you except that you are an impresario. I really don’t know what an impresario is except to say, “It’s someone like Sol Hurok.” The words Sol Hurok and impresario have been tattooed on my brain ever since they appeared on the 1976 MCAT test, an entrance exam for medical school. I…
Read MoreSong parody to “It’s a Gift to be Simple
Read MoreA mother strikes a blow in solidarity for all the discontented snack moms out there!
Read More1. Selfishness I don’t recall absorbing the difficult childhood mandate to share, but by age nine or ten, I had a grasp on the give and take of toys and the painful sacrifice of a split cookie. At this point sharing was confined to friends and family. It was the dentist’s office that taught me the abstract…
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