Do We Really Care if Cops have College Degrees?
I read so many things today I can’t think of where to begin. The Recorder had a story about how some police unions are suing a local town over Quinn Bill benefits. This law provides steep raises for any cops who take on-line or other dubiously challenging college courses. It’s […]
Quadruplets Add Four to Yale’s Class of 2014
I dialed up the NY Times on line this morning as I sipped my first cup of coffee. There I read about quadruplets from Connecticut who all got the same joyous news…they saw the blue screen, then the Eli bulldog, which meant that they had all been accepted into Yale. […]
How Do You Choose Between 110 Kinds of Tide?
I was sent a magazine called Smart Money since I subscribe to the WSJ. It was more interesting than most magazines about finance, and a column by Anne Kadet caught my attention. It was about how Americans are fatigued with too many choices…and I must say I agree. That’s why […]
Today’s Teacher Lesson: Just Sit There…for Months
It’s the calm before the storm…and in the cozy GoNOMAD Cafe, I found a place to write here in front of the windows. I logged on to LATimes and read about the downside of teachers unions. There are 160 teachers in LA who are paid to come to school every […]
If You’re Dumb Enough to Check a Laptop, Well…
A story by Scott McCartney in yesterday’s WSJ convinced me never to ever pack anything with real value in my checked in bags. The story was about how many bags are looted and stolen from, and to make it worse, have their tags ripped off so the luggage never makes […]
Early Cruisers Loved One Thing: The Booze
I set out for the Y this morning without the book I’m reading. So I found another book on my shelf and dove in…it’s called Devils and the Deep Blue Sea: The Dreams and Schemes and Showdowns that built America’s Cruise-ship Empires. It begins by recounting the last day on […]
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"Perfection is OK, But it Leaves the Old Man with Little to Do"
Mike Kirby writes a blog called On the Loose. A few days ago he mused about downsizing into a new condo. Granite counters, shiny this and that, but what would he be missing? He hits it squarely on the head. “Perfection is okay, but it leaves the old man with […]
Join Us for a Second New Year’s Eve in Holyoke
As I’ve gotten older I’m less and less willing to go out on New Year’s Eve. Yet last year I broke with tradition and ventured out to the Wisteriahurst Museum, to join about a hundred other proud Holyokers to bring in the new year. It was a lot of fun […]
Buffett Told Them to Send a Fax, But They Didn’t
A front page story by Scott Patterson in Saturday’s WSJ detailed the scary times last fall when it seemed the economy was collapsing right in front of our eyes. Warren Buffett says ‘he looked into the abyss’ when confronted with the scene–the government bailing out big banks, and most of […]
They Fear the Aspirations of their Own People the Most
I was up early this morning, reading and reading on my little iphone while lying in bed. So many interesting stories on such a tiny device, Lord what did I ever do before I got my mitts on this thing? I read Obama’s speech that he gave to the Nobel […]
How About Putting a Sail on that Freighter?
It’s a brilliant cold Saturday, and I learned quite a bit as I read last night’s WSJ while looking out at the chickadees and finches flitting over the feeder. One was about a German company called SkySails that installs parachute-like sails above commercial freighters and says that in the right […]
A One-Time Newspaper that Turned Heads
In San Francisco, they published a one-off that impressed everybody and they all lined up to buy it. Print newspapers aren’t dead, the story asserts, we just want them to be much better. This paper was called the San Francisco Panorama. It’s a big broadsheet in color with features about […]
Potemkin Village: A Useful Term for Our Time
Reading a story in the WSJ tonight I came across an excellent word that prompted me to delve into its meaning. That is, Potemkin Village. As in, ‘they planted a potemkin forest to block the highway.’ It goes back to Catherine the Great’s tour of Crimea in 1787, when a […]
Captured by the Snowfall
I am looking out at a serene backyard, dappled with sun. Yet in my part of the woods, the winds rage, the rain pours down on top of the big snowfall. Happily plugged in, I manage to ‘kill time’ a bit here in NJ while rides home are sorted out […]
The Narrative Pollutes the Minds of Muslims
My parents get two newspapers every day at their New Jersey home. One of them is the Trenton Times, which publishes Thomas Friedman’s column, as does the NY Times, their second newspaper. I read him today and as usual, agree with what he has to say. It’s about the Narrative…a […]
Wild Things Are Captures Boyhood’s Emotions
We staggered out of the theater in Davis Square this afternoon after seeing Where the Wild Things Are, Spike Jonze’s brilliant adaptation of the Maurice Sendak children’s classic. The emotion that he’s able to squeeze out of 20-foot-high characters in elaborate costumes and CGI faces took our breath away. Those […]