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“Clinton supports McCain,” the headline in my podunk little newspaper proclaimed. Huh? What? How many editor’s and publisher’s did that little “OOPS” slip past? Too add insult to injury, the correction the paper ran the next day began with a typo. If our local paper published corrections for anything other than factual errors; the corrections […]

40-year-old Gloria Nunez has never held a diploma or a job. She lives in subsidized housing and receives disability payments and government assistance. “Depressed and disabled, incapable of getting a job,” she relies on food stamps to help with groceries, although NPR reports that she’s having to cut back on ice cream. Certainly Gloria is […]

A serial killer later identified as Ted Bundy is on the loose. The Cold War gets colder while Watergate goes hot and heavy. Oil prices are on the rise in the midst of an embargo. 149 tornadoes are unleashed in a single night, killing 315 people and injuring 5,000. Nixon resigns. In 1974, Ms. Jones […]

By the time you read this, Barack Obama will have announced his running mate for the upcoming presidential election. What’s interesting is the way he’s supposedly going to do it: with a text message to his supporters. Does this seem impersonal and ineffective to you? Think again: the voters who signed up to be the […]

Rounding the corner by the cemetery, my eye was drawn to the monument shop across the street. Never having needed their services, I’ve never paid them much notice. What caught my attention this morning was the smiling, sun-shaped piñata at the counter and the neon sign in the window declaring “Hot Savings on Custom Memorials”. […]

No matter what era you grew up in, you undoubtedly faced off with your folks during the turmoil and excitement of your teen years. They were so out of date, they were so stodgy, they didn’t understand what it was like to be a kid. They had no idea why you needed Izods or Abercrombie, […]

Don’t ever ask a woman when she is due. Don’t assume she’s expecting, even if you’re at “Babies-R-Us” and she’s wearing a baggy t-shirt printed with a big arrow pointing to her bellybutton that says “BABY.” You know what they say about people who “assume,” don’t you? It makes an A*S out of U and […]

You can’t squeeze a penny anymore, have you noticed? Used to be you could round off your tank to the nearest dollar. Now, every pinch at the pump gushes forth 7.9 cents or some such exorbitant number, making it impossible to top off in nice round numbers. Forget that $35.00 tank, now it’s $74.07. It […]

Mailman. Grandfather. Hairdresser. Mall. Park. Home. Purse. Computer. Idea. Nouns like these are what the world is made of. Adjectives tell us more about nouns: Reliable. Kind. Cute. Convenient. Fun. Two-story. Leather. Digital. Good. But a world full of modified people, places and things is dead without life-giving verbs. Words like deliver. Love. Beautify. Shop. […]

The list of phobias is as long and amusing as it is frightening. You’ve got your average, ordinary fears like fear of heights, confined spaces or spiders. You’ve got your funny fears like the fear of chicken, flowers, garlic or chopsticks. Then there’s the fear of opinions, ugliness or smells. I can relate. Can you? […]