Month: March 2018

In the latest installment of “making schools safer”, this just in. A school district in rural Pennsylvania is placing five-gallon buckets of stones in every classroom so that students could throw them at potential shooters.  Betsy DeVos, reigning Secretary of Education could not have come up with a more effective and satisfying school defense plan.  Maybe she could unveil the details in her next  60 Minutes interview. Continue reading “Torn from the Headlines: The Rock Defense”

A good friend of ours is planning another trip to the UK.  She’s a confirmed Anglophile, and all things British are just better – from scones  (properly pronounced “scuhn”, so it really should have an unlaut) and clotted cream to the trappings of a proper high tea.  Indeed, everything in Britain is  better.   Continue reading “A Trip to Remember”

Plucked from the news recently is a small article commenting on the death of a gentleman from Rhode Island who spent much of his life fighting to preserve the natural landscape, particularly at the “The Breakers”, the former Vanderbilt estate mansion overlooking the ocean in Newport.  Tragically, this person was struck and killed by a falling tree.  I know, right?  Does anyone else but me see just a trace of humor in this tragic event?  It’s rather like the naturalist appearing on a late night talk show many years ago who had barely had the statement, “I feel great and expect to live a long time” out of his mouth before he suffered a major heart attack and died on the set.  Continue reading “Life’s Ironies”

Remember the days when you walked into a hotel and saw big, roomy wing back chairs, graceful sofas, pleasant areas to sit and read?  No, I don’t either.  Must have been a scene from “Downton Abbey”.  I do remember those great deep red velvet couches in the Earl’s library.  Now that’s furniture. These days, designers of hotel furniture seem to be really pushing the envelope to make everything less accessible, while human comfort and a place to relax is going the way of the coal furnace.  “Brutalist” is just a architectural style –  it’s spread to every place to park your fanny in hotels across the country. Continue reading ““We Can’t Get Up!” On Hotel Furniture”

Would you mind taking a survey about this blog?  Just a quick . . . . oh, never mind.  I’ll get back to it.  Have you noticed lately that every bit of human interaction, corporate or individual, comes with a survey?  I don’t think there’s ever been a time where consumer satisfaction and loyalty has disintegrated so much, yet we get so many opportunities to tell them about it.  Is anyone listening, reading, or paying attention to anything we send them? Continue reading “Your Feedback is Very Important to Us! (Taking Surveys)”