My drivers-ed teacher taught the standard Illinois Rules Of the Road protocol and instilled solid habits in we fledgling motorists. She even gave each of us a one-time lesson in stick-shift driving. Because the school’s cars were all automatics, she graciously – perhaps foolishly – volunteered her Ford Thunderbird. If that car were around today,… [read more]
Hollering
Caution: Contains snark! Children, as well as adults who act like children, should proceed with caution. ——————————- When Wayne LaPierre became executive vice-president of the NRA he shed his bookish ways and made himself into the out-front, out-there, inflammatory voice of the gun manufacturers’ lobby. His misleading assertions and fabrications of “facts” and his only… [read more]
Imagine . . .
Conjuring the precise and slow voice, the deliberate and accurate words, the syllables sounding as though passed through a long, reedy pipe, comes the voice of of Carl Sagan . . . “Imagine, if you will, an alternate universe with billions and billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars. Around one of those stars… [read more]
This Is For You If You’re Unemployed
On January 20, 2009, the night of President Obama’s inauguration, Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan and others met for a late dinner at a posh DC restaurant. They weren’t there to eat. They were there to plot their strategy following the Obama mandate and it took them just minutes to decide how… [read more]
EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! (while you still can)
The Trans Pacific Partnership (“TPP”) has a name that sounds all friendly and cozy. Shockingly, it is exactly that – friendly and cozy, but only to the huge money power brokers. It is not nearly as friendly and cozy to you. In fact, you’re about to get knifed in the back. Here is a link… [read more]
A Little Self-Disclosure
I didn’t make a new year’s resolution. Not this year, nor any other year, with the exception of several years when I was young, heard about the practice and went along because that’s what I thought everyone did. Within hours of making each one, though, I could no longer identify what the resolution had been. … [read more]
Neighbors and Lives
Pope Francis was famously approached by a non-believer and told him, “We must meet one another doing good.” That is to say, what matters most is not a professed belief, but instead it is about how we live our lives. Those of a certain age and others who actually read their history book in high school… [read more]
The Meaning of Duck
Branding and marketing genius Bruce Terkel (pronounced “tur-KELL”) has a most interesting and insightful blog focused on – guess what? – branding and marketing. This one arrived amidst the turmoil, travail and truculence surrounding the harebrained, hateful and hurtful things said about gays and blacks by Phil Robertson, one of the pseudo-mountain men of the… [read more]
Republicans and Jobs
On December 3, 2013 Speaker of the House John Boehner declared in a 57 second speech that, “Republicans continue to stay focused on the economy. And the fact is that the American people want us to do everything we can to strengthen the economy so there will be more jobs and higher wages available. This… [read more]
No, Mr. Godburn, They Are Not
Mark R. Godburn, an antiquarian bookseller in North Canaan, CT, wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the December 8, 2013 New York Times, along with responses from several readers. Mr. Godburn cautions us that, “Relying on one source, or even on several sources with the same bias, will leave you with… [read more]
