As an “oldish” member of Generation X, I’m too young to remember the days of home milk delivery in glass bottles. I can, recall, however, when supermarket milk came in cardboard cartons. The backs of the cartons featured the heartbreaking photos of missing children while on the front the words, “Pasteurized and Homogenized” were boldly … Continue reading
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Who’s the Real Villain?
As I work to improve my Spanish language skills before moving to Mexico in September, I’ve started reading the Spanish editions of many of the stories I enjoyed as a child. Most of the stories bring back wonderful memories of having the stories read to me, by my mother, grandmother, or a beloved teacher at … Continue reading
Opting Out – Is It Doing Our Children More Harm Than Good?
I’ve never been an “outdoorsy” sort of person, especially when the weather is hot (and in North Carolina, where I currently live, it’s hot from late April through early November.) So, one of my hot weather guilty pleasures is to watch YouTube videos of the often out-of-control school board meetings, where parents, students, and sometimes … Continue reading
Fueling the Fire or Starving the Beast?
What the film: FernGully: The Last Rainforest Taught Me About MAGA Escapism – in these turbulent political times I suspect that there are many Americans who, me included, just need a break from all of the negativity. I must admit that the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election hit me hard and in the months … Continue reading
Is “Flip-Flopping” Always a Bad Thing?
“Flip-Flopping” or Simply an Evolving Point of View? In the world of politics, facing accusations of being a “flip-flopper” is often the kiss of death for a potential candidate. Back in 2000, when then Vice-President Al Gore launched a campaign to be the successor to President Bill Clinton, many believe that Gore’s change of direction … Continue reading
Will I Ever Use This in Real Life?
Although many things in society have changed between the time when I was a middle school and high school student from 1975 to 1981 and today, I suspect there is one area in which older Gen Xers like me and today’s Gen Zs. For generations, students in required history courses have often questioned the need … Continue reading
Do All Lives Really Matter?
For all of Facebook’s virtues and vices, there is one aspect of it which those of us of a certain age probably marvel at more than most. It provides a way to peek into the lives of friends and acquaintances from high school in a way that we otherwise would be unable to do. It … Continue reading
A Kinder Gentler Place
The nation said goodbye to former President Jimmy Carter last week, and as all of the living former Presidents and many of the former Vice-Presidents gathered to pay their respects it was impossible, for those of us old enough to have lived through each of their administrations to make comparisons among them. I was only … Continue reading
Forgetful Gullibility: American’s New Deadly Pandemic
Are you better off now than 4 years ago? Some think that her inability to answer this question to the satisfaction of Trump-supporting Americans is what ultimately cost Kamala Harris the presidency. I don’t believe that she didn’t have a satisfactory answer, but rather that she was being cautious in her rhetoric, as politicians, (except, … Continue reading
Too Much of a Gentleman
Here I am in 1976. I was 13 years old and in the eighth grade. From ages 9 to 12 I had been somewhat vaguely aware of the Watergate scandal, not because it was interesting (the long summer of the Watergate hearings made for very boring television), but because, from the adults all around me, … Continue reading