A Facebook friend in her 60s commented she finally remembered the name of the bird she’d seen in her garden. That she was able to do so made her made her happy. It meant her little gray cells were working. I knew what she meant. At a certain age, we tend to second guess ourselves, e

I read an essay by novelist Claire Messud, recently, which raised questions about the pace of everyday life. (“In Praise of Boredom,” by Claire Messud, Harper’s, August 2015, pgs. 52-54). At times, her thoughts appeared to be hurried and unrelated, beginning with reminiscences a

Last week, I did a search on Amazon, looking for the correct spelling of an author’s name. I didn’t want to buy his book, nonetheless for several succeeding days, I was dogged by promos whenever I surfed the web. I wasn’t intrigued. I felt assaulted. What I didn’t know was the

The other day my 94 year-old psychologist friend sat down opposite me as I was having lunch at the retirement center. I was munching dutifully on a slab of grilled tofu and a few roasted potatoes, nourishing stuff, but uninspiring. He looked at my plate with a blank expression. “The

Sometimes, if you wait long enough, a problem solves itself. For some time, pundits have been warning about the collapse of our technical infra structure. Not only is our system susceptible to hackers living in the wilds of Nigeria, but to those in Russia and China who can open our hi

I wrote, recently, about a dress that appeared to be blue and black to some people but gold and white to others. (Blog 7/17/2015) Initially, the cause for the difference in perception was charged to how light waves hit the retina. But, not so fast. Other researchers suspect the differ

The trouble with money is us. Whether there’s too much or too little money spells trouble. In the case of too much, it creates the illusion of entitlement, as described in the ongoing property battles between the rich and famous in the Hamptons (“Boundary Issues, by Bob Morris, To

Over time, readers of this blog may wonder if there is a guiding principle because the topics seem so diverse. To be honest, I write about what interests me without regard to theme. Writers are students of life and that’s a broad field.  Women’s equality I address often because I

I’m not bragging but making a point. When I took over my local teachers’ union years ago, the organization was $10,000 in debt and bleeding members. Five years later when I left, the debt was paid and the organization had won a collective bargaining election. Surprised by what I�

Of late, I’ve been wondering if I’ve gone to sleep and awakened to find myself in another dimension. The thawing of conservative attitudes has overwhelmed my powers of belief. Yet the thawing is real and I see glimpses of a glorious world forming. Iran and the West have agreed to