Author: Thomas Walters

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”

I must admit that this writing is inspired by a cartoon I saw recently, and sadly I didn’t save it to give credit to the cartoonist.   Whoever he or she is, there’s true brilliance.  A group of people are standing on yoga mats looking at their cellphones, with the legend, Downward-Facing Humans.  Continue reading “No Impact Yoga”

Since our original chapter highlighting some of the delightful absurdities of House Hunters, like the Tiny House version, our home buyers have been kicking it up a notch.  In the interests once again of keeping our readers fully informed, here’s an update. Continue reading “More House Hunters – An Update”

For those cultures and traditions that don’t decoratively wrap up dozens, nay hundreds of gifts, truly wise.  Here in North America, as in much of the world, we provide a boon to manufacturers of wrapping materials as well as clearcutting many a forest to provide a festive atmosphere for our nearest and dearest every December.  Continue reading “Wrapping Up Christmas”

I’d like to thank the wonderful folks in marketing for throwing my internal seasonal calendar all out of kilter.  Remember when we didn’t hear Christmas music until, well, Christmas?  Now it’s playing in Home Depot right after Columbus Day.  By Veterans Day, we’re ready to take bows and arrows to reindeer and toss the venison in the freezer for Thanksgiving.   Continue reading “Regards of the Season – Whatever Season”

We Americans always seem to be in a hurry.  It’s on the highways with someone who thinks they’re a lower level James Bond coming flying by me, weaving from lane to lane.   Looking for divine retribution, I hope to see them in a ditch, unhurt but ego bruised a few miles down the road.  I even saw this unwelcome impatience in a department store in Florida among older people as they went up and down the aisles like snow-plows, looks of grim annoyance on their faces that said clearly, “I earned this. In thirty years, you can push people out of the way too.”   Continue reading “USA – Get Out of Our Way”