On Friday,  I complained I experience vertigo as a result of sharing the world with Donald Trump and his followers.  I don’t even know how to describe Trump.  Is he  a president or a cult leader?  A president or a would-be dictator?  Certainly, he is a celebrity.  As such, th

Of late, Donald Trump’s favorability rating has jumped to a high of 49 percent in one major poll.  I admit, I am puzzled, like a salmon swimming upstream while numbers of my species are headed toward the sea. Where are they going?  What are they thinking?  Okay, I get

Earnest Hemmingway observed, “I love sleep. My life has the tendency to fall apart when I’m awake, you know?”   Yes, I do know.  Who hasn’t had a time in his or her life when sleep was more welcome than coping with daily challenges?  But sleep — too much or too l

Recently, an article appeared in a newsletter which reminded me that everyone has a story to tell. The one I was reading contained the recollections of a woman, near my age, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. She was seven at the time but retained vivid memories of her internm

I don’t click on Amazon much.  Their sales strategy bothers me. For example, why I should pay almost $200 a year for the benefit of “free” shipping.  Do I detect an oxymoron here?  No matter.  I’m a bricks-and-mortar person.   The last item I purchased was an electric to

I  heard it again today.  “Oh, I never read fiction.  I prefer non-fiction.” My molars dug into the side of my cheek so that I could hold my tongue. People who make this remark seem to imagine reading fiction is a frivolous pastime.  In my experience, men most often hold this

About the superrich and taxes, Leona Helmsley, deceased New York real estate tycoon, was candid.   “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” Donald Trump, our 45th President and a real estate mogul of a later generation, admits the same.  What’s more, the newe

Last week a woman on Facebook was drumming up support for a Oregon petition.  The purpose was to prevent the state legislature from raising the gas tax to pay for road improvements.  That people complain about potholes but don’t want to pay to fix them, isn’t new to me .

Probably, I should be embarrassed to admit I hate sports.  Any kind of sports.  If it involves competition and movement, I’d rather read a book.  When I taught school in Zimbabwe, I feigned enthusiasm for games because one of my duties was to chaperon the girls’ hockey teams to

Last week I laughed when my broker called with a stock suggestion.  Believe me, that’s no way to treat a person who has helped me survive my senior years with a modicum of security.  I apologized and told him I’d been thinking about selling the stock he’d suggested.  The comp