The other day I sat down to talk with a fellow resident at my retirement center.  She was eating fish tacos, a messy lunch which I knew would require both hands as well as her mouth.  An excellent time to air my views on Donald Trump, I thought.  I don’t recall what outrage the p

  Imagine you are looking for a job and you read this ad:  “Be your own boss.  No more  9 to 5.  Work as much or as little as you like.  Earn as much as you like.”  Would you be tempted to apply?  If you did, you’d probably be entering what’s called the “gig” e

She was annoyed with me, the woman on Facebook.  I’d taken a position with which she disagreed.  We exchanged one or two comments.  Then I let the matter drop.  We were jousting over opinions, after all. Stellar orbits remained intact.  Tides would continue to roll in from the

Since the 2016 election, we’ve heard a good deal about fake news.  Bogus sources seem to spring up overnight.  Even Gig data can’t be trusted.  Click)  How do we tell the news from propaganda in this environment?  With 2.2 billion users sharing information on Faceboo

Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls, is changing the toy’s image.  Today, instead of the anorexic model of the past, she’s manufactured in different body shapes and varying skin colors.  Also added to the line is Barbie’s Inspiring Women, likenesses of accomplished w

Keeping democracy healthy, despite tribal instincts and where change is the constant, isn’t easy. Witness the number of democracies that have died in recent years. (Click)  “Justice for all” isn’t a part of the human genome. Nor will you find it in any slave agreement or

GlaxoSmithKline has a cure for the “bubble boy” affliction, an ailment that attacks people’s immune systems.  The price tag? $634,000. (Ibid, pg. 22.)   Spark Therapeutics, Inc. has a gene therapy to cure a rare form of childhood blindness. What is the value of gaining one’

While heading my teachers’ union in the 1970s, I was appointed to the Mayor’s Economic Advisory Council.  I had no background in economic development but I satisfied a necessary profile to round out the committee.  I was a woman and I was a union leader.  I soon learned my role

Cognitive dissonance is a term psychologists use to explain how the human mind protects itself from its inherent contradictions. Smokers deny a link between cancer and cigarettes so they can go on smoking, for example. (Blogs 3/17/16, 3/17/16)  We all behave the same way.  We’re h