Love of Country
In 1814, after the British bombardment failed at Fort McHenry, Francis Scott Key was so inspired by the sight of the American Flag still flying in the early morning, that he wrote the poem Defense of Fort McHenry. Within a…
Practical Information for a Better Life!
Practical Information for a Better Life!
Category Perspectives on Today’s Issues
If the Bullies Win
I can’t imagine what life is like for the millions of people who live in Ukraine. As I write this, the once beautiful seaport city of Mariupol has fallen to Russia. And Russia plans to execute the 260 Ukrainian soldiers…
The Fun in Laughing at Ourselves
From 1980 to 2016 Prairie Home Companion was the Saturday night choice of entertainment for approximately 2.6 million listeners who tuned into NPR radio for 2 hours of fun. On one Saturday each year they did “The Joke Show”. The…
Questioning the Experts
In addition to the illness and deaths caused by Covid-19 in the past two years, it has also caused unprecedented stress, anxiety, and frustration for hundreds of millions who never got the virus. Much of that is due to the…
The Vastness of History
I never liked history classes until I got to college. My freshman year in college I had a professor who made the subject fascinating and relevant. Until then I had only been taught American history, and it was taught as…
The Age of Innocence
Author Edith Wharton wrote in her autobiography that her book The Age of Innocence allowed her to find a momentary escape in going back to her childish memories of a long-vanished America. The Age of Innocence was published in 1920.…
Feeling Left Out
Approximately 210 million Americans don’t have access to high speed internet, according to MicroSoft Corp. I’m one of them. I split my time between my water-front home on Florida’s Forgotten Coast and my husband’s ranch at the top of a…
Is Our Work Ethic Vanishing?
The best crab cakes I’ve ever had are made and served at a small upscale restaurant called Lenoras in the tiny town of Perryopolis south of Pittsburgh, PA. Not a place indigenous to crabs. Lenora, the owner, is the chef…
When Less is More
In the summer of 2011 I visited the Painted Desert in the Four Corners where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah meet. As part of the Petrified Forest National Park, the Painted Desert offers little vegetation or signs of life.…
Do You Choose to be Healthy?
Back in the 1990s, I had a film crew taping interviews with customers who had bought a gardening product called the ComposTumbler … a product I marketed from 1986 to 2009. One interview with an older gentleman, a master gardener …