What American homeowner hasn’t had the pleasure of a door-to-door cold call from their friendly neighborhood Mormon? About a month ago I was home early from work when a couple of missionaries came a knocking. I was home alone with some extra time on my hands, and I was genuinely curious, so I engaged my two Mormon captives in a full-tilt interrogation.
You may already know this, undoubtedly…
It does the soul good to know that our efforts are not in vain; that our attempts to good sometimes bear fruit. In my case I had pulled out all the stops to sway opinion. I looked up government data, pulled together an imposing collection of statistics, and summed it all up with old fashioned good sense. In the end minds were swayed, behaviors changed, and attitudes tweaked.
This morning, for the…
In my line of work, purveyors of insurance are given ALL kinds of opportunities to hawk their wares on the company dime. This afternoon one such huckster was in the office… with a sweetened pot: free gifts in return for “a moment of your time.” It was like I had been transported to Daytona Beach and someone was trying to sell me a timeshare condo, only instead of a free day at…
Yesterday we watched “…good night, and good luck.” It’s that movie about Edward R. Murrow and his decision to take on Senator Joseph McCarthy during the height of the “Red Scare.” At the end of the movie, after watching several stirring recreations of “See it now” broadcasts, I was struck with one overriding thought. There are few that write like…
On occasion there is no limit to my torpidity. In fact, this morning was one such morning. I was dragging myself across the parking lot, by every outward appearance failing a field sobriety test, when I spied a spry fellow whistling his way to work.
Channeling my inner New Yorker (the source of surliness in all of us), I came up with a few choice epithets for this man and his disgusting display of…
Let me say that most of the folks we’ve dealt with at my daughter’s school have been wonderful. They’ve been kind, patient, understanding, and caring. All the same, next year my daughter will be going to a different school.
Why is she going to a different school? It’s a long story, one I don’t have the energy or inclination to tell right now… but here’s…
The Prez gave a talk last night. Dude! He was down with immigration and border security. Many of the things he said sounded reasonable. From what I’ve heard (not just from the speech) the border guard is stretched thin. A stop gap of 6000 National guardsmen would come in handy. A rotation of 6k guardsmen is not an undue burden on a force 400k strong. The threat of smuggling across our…
It’s mostly cloudy with a chance of rain… and so am I. A late season cold front is on the move – gifting us with one more shot at postcard weather. “Cold” front may be a little too generous; it may be more of a “not so damn hot” front. I’ve used this space to profess my love of rainy days, but I wish it’d go ahead and rain already.
It’s…
I was surprised, but not in a good way, to hear that some conservatives might play the gay card again this election season. I am angry about this development on so many different levels, I don’t quite know where to begin, but I’m just cynical enough to fear it might work.
I’m angry because for most of us, it is a small issue. For myself and for the heterosexual masses out there…