NEW BEGINNINGS WITH OLD THEMES This morning I started my annual clean up of the basement. It’s a job I do every year and one I devoutly hate. Mostly, I dislike confronting the daddy longlegs spiders that have made a cozy place for themselves near the windows. They are harmless, frag

ART FOR ART’S SAKE?  BAH, HUMBUG Didn’t P. T. Barnum say, “There’s a sucker born every minute?” I don’t wish to be that judgmental, but sometimes I do wonder why people do the things they do. As I ate my oatmeal this morning, I read an article about a new trend in New Yor

THE NEWS VERSUS WINNiE THE POOH Given the speed with which information or disinformation travels through the internet and the media, I sometimes find it hard to keep my chin up. This past week, I’ve been subjected to enough horror stories, both fact and fiction, to turn my grey hair

 I’M SORRY On Saturday, I had brunch with a group of friends, two of them who served as former staff members when I was in politics, and all of them still working at their careers. We are a group of nine and I am the senior citizen, retired and separated from the youngest member by

THAT IS THAT On Thursday, I wrote a blog which celebrated a writer’s non-judgmental analysis of the world, an attitude I thought the rest of the population might emulate. Today, I’ve read an article which debunks my point of view (Blog 9/30/2010). It was an interview with Pakistan