I’m a prisoner of Covid-19.  Are you a prisoner, too?  Oregon, my home state, is doing a miserable job of keeping the number of viral infections down.  Maybe your state is the same. In any case, for the past few months, we Oregonians have been required to wear masks in public and

A month or two before Christmas last year, (2019) I walked through the local mall in search of children’s gifts for charity. About a third of the stores had gone out of business. Too many people were avoiding crowds and shopping on the internet. The two toy retailers that had existe

If my memoir ever finds an agent and is published, readers  who buy the book will journey back to the 1960s, joining my travel adventures throughout Europe and Africa.  I spent nearly 4 years wandering the planet and found the experience freeing.  Existing as a stranger in a strang

Aphorisms are pithy sayings that capture what’s common in human experience.  “All’s well that ends well,” came to mind the other day after a misadventure with my car title. I needed to release it to a friend but couldn’t find the document in any of the usual places. Confide

Recently, newscasters were making light of Donald Trump’s self-congratulatory response to a dementia test he took, mistaking it for one that measured I. Q.  Despite his confusion, I’m happy for him, and for the nation, that he passed. His niece, a clinical psychologist, has alrea

Not long ago, I wrote a blog on the transgender issue.  The argument, I hoped, was both reasoned and well documented. Nonetheless, I expected push back.  To my surprise, the response was muted. One reader did object to my remarks. Another noted I had gone out on a limb but didn’t

I’m thinking today about the ways Covid-19 has rendered our society dysfunctional. We seem to blame the virus for much of what’s happened of late.  For example, I scheduled a  phone conference at 10 a.m. last Friday with one of my computer gurus. We had planned to do a trial run

I’ve always taken it for granted though I’ve cursed the long lines that result from staff shortages. Other than have a tooth pulled, I’d do anything to avoid the Post Office.  I buy my stamps from the grocery store and mail my packages at a stationery shop around the corner fro

A friend sent me an email this morning to say that in honor of the times in which we live, she was writing a new version of the Jabberwock.  I replied to her post as follows: “I woke up today with a new first stanza of the poem tumbling in my head.” For those who have yet to meet

I listened to an interesting discussion about racial bias in language on YouTube the other day. The conversation was between a Caucasian host and an African American woman who consults on race sensitivity. The guest made the point that attention to language is one way to change cultur