Thank you Jose Melendi

It’s Spring, the sun is shining (when precipitation is not pouring down upon us), and my best friend and spouse is refinishing the nest, applying ideas she has gleaned from a winter of Home and Garden TV.
It’s time to paint the garage, moving shelves, possibly making more usable space into which will, within months, funnel [...]

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Bully-free zone? Not necessarily

Many schools have signs on their doors proclaiming them to be Bully-Free Zones. I have even seen such signs alongside the road as I’ve driven past school driveways.
They indicate the schools are at least thinking about the problem. Unfortunately, they do not really indicate the schools have solved the problem.
Most people, in general discussion, immediately [...]

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Sexting: skinny dipping for the digital age

Time was, I am told, when teenagers would occasionally gather at the local swimming hole, shuck their duds, and jump in the creek. I’m thinking, as I write this from my advancing chronological vantage, that most of the participants turned out OK. They re-donned their duds and became doctors, lawyers, and farmers.
Unfortunately, for most of [...]

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The Key to Afghanistan

We are about to withdraw our soldiers from Iraq — and send them to Afghanistan. They are needed there, Cong. Todd Platts, said Wednesday, to help knock down a Taliban resurgence in the southern part of the country.
“In the short term, we may see more casualties,” Platts said. “In the long term, it will result [...]

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Seeking Sakai

In Fall 2007, I was privileged to write about P.O. Box 1142, an ultra-secret World War II interrogation site near Washington, D.C. One of the most significant factors in the story, other than it had been kept secret more than 60 years, was that it’s methods involved treating the enemy with respect and friendship.
Herewith, another [...]

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Those silly ad phrases

Some of the boilerplate verbiage we encounter as we are prevailed upon to purchase various wares guaranteed to help — or at least not hurt – us, is a bit amazing. Most of them are on television, and an ad starring Alec Baldwin may explain why.
In the commercial, Baldwin has come to Earth to promote [...]

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21st Century Pen Pals

I am on Facebook, one of the better known “social web sites.” Users of Facebook get to designate certain people as “friends.” Mostly it is simply a place to leave each other messages.
My site has remained mostly dormant for the several months I have had it. My real friends generally communicate with me more personally: [...]

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What a way to start the year

The news Wednesday night carried a rather innocuous notice: The U.S. Post Office has asked Congress to allow it to stop delivering mail one day a week.
NBC gave the story a little history. On CBS, there was a simple one-liner.
Neither network mentioned the number of jobs that would be lost when mail delivery drops from [...]

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Crossing mountain ranges

I sat on a recent morning in the atrium of the Best Western Executive motel in Ann Arbor, Mich., watching the world of travelers awaken itself.
A woman in a white blouse and black slacks entered the lobby with four small children. They disappeared into the elevator. A few minutes later, the woman reappeared, ready to [...]

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Let’s vote, already!

Be done with it already!
What are any of the candidates going to say in the next week that will a) change minds, or b) not get them in trouble? Which could change some minds.
I am amazed that anyone can remain undecided at this point. I believe some voters have not made up their minds; I [...]

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