Month: February 2018

In a departure from my usual writing, this is a very serious issue, and it must be discussed in a serious manner.  There is no humor today, and I write this as one who has dedicated his working career to education. Because of my background and training, I’m very sensitive to the life lessons we teach our young people, and to the behaviors that teachers do and must model. I personally shudder at the thought of pulling a trigger on a young person.  After our most recent example of gun violence in a school, followed up closely by analysis (or spin, perhaps) of the problem led me to look first at some statistics that should direct our national discussion of solutions.  Here’s what I’ve found. Continue reading “Guns in the Classroom”

TV watchers learned over the years that we need to put up with commercials because, well, that’s what pays for the shows.  Ads are all over the place – billboards, naming rights, pop-ups on websites.  Why, even after you’ve paid $12 for a movie ticket and settled comfortably with your $5 soda and $9 tub of popcorn, commercials appear on the big screen.  I know, right?  When did that happen?  The movie theater was the place you didn’t have to sit though ads for local dental services and funeral homes.  Does anyone watching a movie ever, ever think, “you know, Millie, we really ought to swing by Perpetual Peace Mausoleums on the way home and book a couple of drawers.”? Continue reading “A Word From Our Sponsors”

The grocery “landscape”, as we youngsters say, has changed dramatically in recent years.  (Actually, just using the term youngsters dates me considerably, but I digress.)  For those of us that still remember A & P (that was a national grocery chain – I mention that so millennials don’t have to Google it), we’re overwhelmed by the possibilities of shopping for regular supplies of food.  You can now buy fifty rolls of toilet paper at your local jumbo supplier, coffee creamer and car tires at a major discount store (and they’re surprisingly not far from each other), or hamburger buns along with a new sweater and boots at another popular shopping outlet.  You can place an order on line and have it ready for pick up at the grocery store, or have home delivery if you want to blow through your lottery winnings in short order.  You can even have all manner of meats shipped to you directly from Omaha, Nebraska, which gives whole new meaning to the phrase, “farm to table”. Continue reading “The Grocery Shopping Experience”

A long-standing lament of mine is the loss of civility in our culture.  I see it on the highways when fools think they have the driving skills of Jason Bourne and come flying by me, weaving in and out of traffic.  And I, looking for divine retribution, hope to see them in a ditch a few miles down the road.  Perhaps movies are to blame, viewers thinking, “how hard can that be?”  Maybe action films, like some stunt scenes, should come with the disclaimer, “Don’t try this on the highway, you idiot!”  Continue reading “How Rude! On Civility”

On a recent overnight getaway, the first weekend of February, I couldn’t help noticing the number of people that still have wreaths up on doors, bows on the lamp post, Rudolph grazing in the front yard, and candles glowing in the windows.  What is up with these people?  Continue reading “It’s February – Take Down Christmas!”

No, no.  This is not another House Hunters recap.  It’s about food.  Well, not just food – about how what we eat has changed through the decades.   Continue reading “Changing Tastes”