The Test of Character

Some of my Facebook friends have been drinking the Koolaid: When it comes to Joe Paterno, I’m with Nancy Nall: whatever he may have achieved in life, when assistant coach McQueary came to him and told him what Jerry Sandusky was doing to a boy in the locker room, JoePa failed the test of character. […]

Don’t Knock the Liberal Arts

Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary recently wrote a column titled “Not All College Majors Are Created Equal.”  You can click the link and read the whole thing, but if you’re in a hurry, the first few lines say it all: I have this game I play when I meet college students. “What’s your major?” I […]

Car Mania (Updated)

Three years ago I visited the Barrett-Jackson auto auction in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I figured it’s been long enough, so yesterday I drove up again, this time with my friend Ed.  It was a long day: two-and-a-half-hours on the freeway going and coming; another four or five hours tramping around the tent city at Barrett-Jackson, ogling […]

Grammar Nazi

A friend posted this to Facebook yesterday: My drinking friends are always forwarding stories like this.  Sure, booze is good for you.  What the hell, if it makes you feel better about your drinking, you have my permission to believe whatever bogus “study” the liquor industry wants you to believe.  Bottoms up! But it isn’t […]

Idiocracy Now

My experience with new year’s resolutions has been generally unsatisfactory.  With me … and with almost everyone I know … resolutions are prescriptions for self-induced stress, ultimate failure, and consequent depression.  They suck. That’s not to say I haven’t made deals with myself and stuck to them: I successfully quit smoking years ago and more […]

Me and Julia

2011 went out with a bang; 2012 came in with a boeuf … Julia Child’s boeuf bourguignon.  And if you think that sounds tortured, you should have seen me in the kitchen trying to make sense of the recipe! Three Christmases back I gave Donna a copy of Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French […]

Out with a Bang

The year, that would be.  Out with a bang.  Shot right through the brain. This Christmas we added a compact 9mm pistol to our arsenal, so Polly and I took it and its big brother (a .357 revolver) to an indoor range this morning.  I wanted to get the feel of the new pistol, and […]