JINGLES THAT JANGLE   Percy (One) Our new dog, named for the beloved poet, ate a book which unfortunately we had Left unguarded. Fortunately, it was the Bhagavad Gita, of which many copies are available. Every day now, as Percy grows into the beauty of life, we touch his wild curly h

I am one of J. D. Vance’s “cat ladies.” Being childless, I have explored the universe without the need to pack a breast pump. That may be selfish of me, but I am unashamed. After all, I contributed to the well-being of the young as a teacher for many years.  Sadly, I won’t li

Felled by ageism, Joe Biden withdrew from the 2024 campaign for U. S. President, and the country lost one of its greatest leaders. A gracious man, he put the nation above his ambition and ended Democratic anxiety about his ability to defeat Donald Trump.  On the upside, his decision

I’m always stunned when people confess they don’t plan to vote in the upcoming 2024 election because neither presidential candidate inspires them–as if the event was a beauty contest and the fate of the nation wasn’t at stake. Joe Biden’s poor debate performance recently

It’s old news that a New York jury found former president Donald Trump guilty of 34 felony counts for falsifying business records before the 2016 presidential election.  He protested that the trial was rigged, naturally.  What else can a guilty man running for the White House a s

I threw a DVD  of “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” into my player last night.  I needed a touch of innocence to block out the television news.  Hard to accept but the real world had grown more fantastical, dark, and insane, than makebelieve. In the episode I selected,

My U. S. Senator voted against the Ukrainian-Istreal aid package that Congress passed recently.  He said he opposed it because of  Benjamin Netanyahu’s conduct in the Gaza war.  I like my Senator. Nonetheless, I sent him an email that accused him of being long on principle, but s

I was grateful to my neighbor for helping me with a technical problem.  He’s the resident guru on computers at the retirement center and far too modest about himself. Aware that I might need his advice in the future, I asked if he’d care to adopt me despite my advanced age.  A s

A month before leaving public life, I published a critique on the media.  At a retirement gathering soon after,  a reporter asked why I’d waited until leaving office to share my views. Previously, I’d written other papers –one on property taxes and the other on Grand Jurie

Watching a reporter interview historian Timothy Snyder one evening, I sat up in my chair when he laid out his thoughts about  Donald Trump’s strategy for the current 2024 Presidential election.  Snyder presumed the former president knew he would lose the contest and was taking unp