Happy to say the memoir I’ve been working on is now in the hands of an editor, and I can return to my blog.  Thank you all for sticking with the re-runs and for you patience.  But before I return to my usual routine of social comment, I want to extend an invitation to all writ

Recently, I spiced up a blog (2/2/2017) with a little alphabet profanity: WTF.  A couple of readers chuckled and seemed surprised that I either knew or would use the expression.  I may have been a school teacher at one time, but life in the Labor movement and in politics gave me a r

Yesterday’s blog (1/31/17) was about blue-collar workers and the potential for them to find new jobs in computer coding.  That’s good news.  But the job market has had a number of work opportunities for some time which men have been slow to consider.  I’m talking about pink c

Geometry was my downfall in high school.  Languages weren’t much better.  I have an aversion to memorizing material.  All those theorems and all that vocabulary made my head spin.   On the other hand,  my brief but spectacular introduction to organic chemistry was a delight. 

What if children in this country were treated as precious commodities, the way the desert treats rain drops?  What if each infant were given sufficient nurturing – healthy meals, a safe environment and a decent education?  What would our society look like in the future?  We’ll

The woman in this coroner’s photograph was called Gerri.  She died in 1964 attempting to give herself an abortion with a coat hanger.   Something went wrong and she bled to death alone on her bathroom floor.  If the picture offends anyone, I am sorry, but the circumstances shoul

In a recent blog (Blog 12/14/2016), I wrote my thoughts about the centuries of patriarchal thinking that have painted women as inferior to men. I referred to women who accepted this view as having  a “chattel mind.”  That I was guilty of the same misperception became clear when

I continue to be amazed at how little we humans know ourselves: how our brains work, what motivations govern us — many of which are unconscious — and how technology alters our mental processes. Take, for example, the GPS systems in today’s cars.  Not only does research

I recall in my college readings a story about David Hume, a philosopher of the 18th century, who believed only what his eyes confirmed — though he was wary of that information as well.  During a conversation with the literary figure James Boswell, Hume asserted a gap existed be

Stanley Bing is a columnist who appears regularly on the last page of the monthly editions of Fortune Magazine.  I don’t know why he’s included among serious speculations about the stock market and China’s currency.  But he is.  And he makes me laugh. This May he