Posted in Government, Life, News and Politics, Writing on July 4, 2008 | No Comments »
Flags wave, fireworks fly, and magnetic stickers abound. But what does it mean to be patriotic? On the 232nd anniversary of the declaration creating the United States of America, it’s worth a few minutes to consider. An essay from the Makinac Center for Public Policy captures much of how I feel.
It isn’t that flags, fireworks, or [...]
Posted in Entertainment, Humor, Life, Writing on June 23, 2008 | 2 Comments »
I am not a linguist, a grammarian, or a teacher, nor do I play any of those on television. However, I am a good speller (city-wide champion in eighth-grade back in 1976 - - you do the math), and I try not to mistreat the English language too much. One thing I am especially careful not to [...]
Posted in Books, Catholic, Christian, Life, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Spirituality, Thomas Merton, Writing on May 25, 2008 | No Comments »
At Mass today, on this feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ I was reminded of something I read last fall:
Only a repeated miracle of God from minute to minute keeps me from falling into hell. I am made out of earth and ashes and spittle and a little mud. I don’t [...]
Posted in Life, Writing on May 1, 2008 | No Comments »
Last August I was musing about the start of the school year and all the possibilities it represents. The school year ends in a few weeks, in only a few months our oldest daughter will be applying to colleges and, before we know it, she will have gone on to the next stage of her [...]
Posted in Books, Drink, Food and Drink, Health and Wellness, Life, Wellness, Writing on April 6, 2008 | No Comments »
Here’s another book that’s gotten a lot of attention over the last few months. The director of our public library suggested I read Michael Gates Gill’s How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else.
Reading some of the online reviews and reader comments it seems people often miss the point [...]
Posted in Hobbies, Life, Motorcycles, Writing on April 6, 2008 | No Comments »
Four and a half months. It’s still early April and the weather is unpredictable, the air still carrying a winter chill much of the time. Even so, it was good to gear up and actually get out on the motorcycle a couple of times this week. Last fall seems like ages ago.
Posted in Books, Catholic, Christian, Life, News, News and Politics, Religion, Religion and Spirituality, Spirituality, Writing on April 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
For the last couple of weeks I have been reading Ken Follett’s “The Pillars of the Earth.” (Note: I was reading it before I had any idea it was enjoying a resurgence - heaven forbid I should actually do something because it’s popular.) I enjoyed it well enough, though at the end it seemed to [...]
Posted in Life, Science, Science and Technology, Writing on February 29, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Here we go again. Sigh. About three months ago I was saying something about this winter having “delusions of grandeur.” Since then we have had a winter unlike any we have had for a while and people’s patience is wearing thin. Not that there’s much we can do about it. Things we can do? Burn [...]
Posted in Life, Motorcycles, Travel, Writing on February 22, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Gotta go. Gotta be on the move. I can’t take this winter much longer, but it really doesn’t give me any choice.
Last year I was able to ride in every month except January - and that was only because I decided I had too much to do around the house on a rare January thaw [...]
Posted in Life, Writing on February 4, 2008 | No Comments »
Recent posts Memory Refill and Another Cup in Judith Warner’s New York Times blog “Domestic Disturbances” speak of the connections between smell and memory, and our connections with time, place, and people. Though her post was centered mainly around coffee and the way it served (serves) as a mechanism for bringing people together, I was particularly struck [...]
