Year: 2021

It has been a little over a year since the terrible murder of young Ahmaud Arbery, just a few short miles from where I am now writing these words. Maybe that’s why his death has haunted me so much this past year when similar stories were reported in the press. It all seems so incongruous…

What do Yogi Berra’s famous quote “Deja vu all over again” and The Kingston Trio’s song “The Merry Minuet” have in common? Answer: They both touched on the essence of what makes us human: we frequently, if not routinely, keep doing the same things over and over. Consequently we are our own worst enemies. Some…

After a year of self-imposed isolation and reluctance to see friends and family, we finally busted out. We invited three oyster-loving friends who we knew had also been holed up by themselves during the pandemic. That and the fact that the five of us, average age 74, all had our second vaccine shot gave us…

For a long time now, especially the last four years, conservatives and Republicans have been bashing the media for fraudulent reporting and spinning the news. They argue, of course, that the media is liberal and biased in its reporting. There may be something to this charge, but not for the reasons given. An article on…

Every other week or so, an article on the plight of Venezuela crops up in the news. Sometimes it is a report that there are not enough drugs and supplies for the hospitals; sometimes it is about the lack of food in the markets or about the tragedy of people seeking gold in the Amazonia…

It’s cold and rainy again today. Yesterday was a warm and sunny day; a tease of hope that spring is coming. This morning the news seems especially sour after the prospect of a new start under the Biden administration. It is business as usual as the media partisans and politicians return to their barricades. We…

I’m just a little bit embarrassed to be whining about the cold and hankering for spring when so many friends and others are suffering through severe cold and unprecedented winter storms. My friends in Iowa and in Canada have real reasons to complain, and now even my sister down in Texas is suffering through horrible…

As a kid growing up in Iowa, I hated rhubarb. It was everywhere in the gardens and sometimes growing wild. I thought it was weird stuff since it was sour and tasted awful. Not for me! I can’t remember where or when I first tasted a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie, but I do know…

There’s plenty of blame and shame to go around. As the oft repeated adage goes, “we get what we deserve.” Still, we might ask, how is it that so many people were duped into voting for and supporting a sociopath for president? Why is it that for more than four years the nation has suffered…

It should be apparent to those of us who keep up with politics that the historical center has increasingly come under assault from both the left and the right. This is nowhere better illustrated than in the two impeachment trials of the former president. Presently, it looks as if he will be acquitted even though…