Several years ago, a woman, who would later become the first female governor of Oregon, snapped at my observation that politics would be better off without political parties. People should vote directly for candidates without needing approval from an “old boy” network, I said.
Never ask a carnivore chef if the restaurant can accommodate a vegetarian His or her idea of feeding one is tantamount to handing the guest a head of lettuce and saying, “My work here is done.” The chef at my retirement center falls into this category. He’s nev
We’ve all heard about the butterfly effect: a butterfly flaps its wings in New Mexico and causes a hurricane in China. The expression seems mystical, like a Japanese koan, but it’s simply a matter of cause and effect. One of the best examples starts with a dress. In the 18th c
Using wealth to build monuments to oneself isn’t easy. A person has to work to spend with panache, because bragging rights are becoming competitive. Recently, a Saudi Prince spent $450.3 million at Christie’s for Leonardo da Vinci’s, Salvador Mundi. (Click)
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton described Donald Trump as “temperamentally unsuited” for the office. How prescient her words were. Most of us now know the holder of the nation’s highest office is, indeed, temperamentally unsuited. Neither a prudent n
I have a program on my computer that critiques my writing. All too frequently, it gives me a red mark for sentences that are too long or for a vocabulary it says might challenge the average reader. The computer assumes I want to appeal to the average reader. And, I d
My last official portrait appears on my blog page. Seventy-three at the time, I knew I was old, but wasn’t prepared when the photographer pulled out a “soft” lens for the shoot. He said he’d take a few images with it. I might like them better. The proofs showed the
As our society becomes increasingly automated, some leading thinkers are talking about what to do for workers who lose their jobs. I’ve written a few blogs on the subject, myself. (Click) One suggestion is to provide displaced workers a basic income. Different from unemployment
Never underestimate the power of a good cosmetic when it’s applied well. Young Joe Kennedy learned about his failure when he responded to the President’s State of the Union address on Wednesday, January 30. Having slathered himself with lip salve, the cameras picked up
Sarah Jones, a writer for The New Republic offers advice on how to seek a compromise to end the abortion war. (“Turning Pro-Life Blue,” by Sara Jones, The New Republic, Jan. 8, 2018, pgs. 9-10) Unfortunately, being young, she fails to recognize her advice is alre