Last week I had coffee with a contemporary.  She’s been a journalist for many years and though she’s in her 70s, she keeps current on trends.  Even so, she’s uncertain about whether or not she can get comfortable in a world without personal privacy. “I’m not sure I regret

Moving from a home to a retirement center requires planning, not the least of which is getting rid of items that once seemed necessary.  Though I haven’t been in the public eye for years, I still own evening clothes, not because I think I’ll  ever need them  but because they’

My last entry concerning my play, Woman on the Scarlet Beast  (Blog 5/15/14)  ended with my description of how I leapt from my chair when the Executive Director of Post5 Theatre invited me to meet  him.  Arriving at the designated location, I was greeted by a tall, golden-haired y

Is it me or does anyone else see irony in the way we humans wring our hands over climate change but do little about it while at the same time, we expend great amounts of energy to preserve our health?  Today there are electronic gadgets that measure every facet of our anatomy, our he

One defense people make for big government is that it serves as a counterweight to big business.  Unfortunately, the last tax-payer bailout of the automobile and bank industries gives little support to that argument.  What’s more, recent revelations in Luke Harding’s new book, T

I admire science.  Because of it, we no longer live in caves or worry about why the sun sometimes goes dark.  I’m curious, however, about what attracts a scientist’s attention.  Writer Ray Bradbury wrote that to touch a scientist is to touch a child which means, I suppose, that

Writer Evgeny Morozov has given thought to the way collecting personal data on the internet has changed marketing strategies.  Based on our web searches, we consumers are targeted with messages that encourage us to spend more and more. (“The Mall,” by Evgeny Morozov, The New Repu

In “Hollywood and Divine,” James Wolcott ruminates on the pluses and minuses of giving television fans what they want. (Vanity Fair, June 2014, pgs. 68-73.)  While considering the question, he explores some of the more popular programs since Twin Peaks and the X-File — stor

The other day at the mall, I was buying postage stamps from the same woman who’s been behind the counter of the little shop for years.  The place is usually busy so we’ve never stopped to chat, but on that day, she and I were alone.  As I handed her the money for my purchase

If a reader of this blog has never listened to the radio broadcast, A Prairie Home Companion and heard Garrison Keillor’s stories of Lake Wobegon, I urge you to remedy the situation.  Keillor is part of a long and illustrious line of American humorists of the 20-21st Century that s