J. C. Penny’s has been struggling for the past several years. Executive leadership has addressed several issues, one of which caught my eye. The CEO noticed the executives, who visited the stores, were disconnected from mainstream employees. A new directive went out that all executives,...
There are lots of antique stores in New England. What I love about them is so many of the items that are for sale were everyday items when I was a child. Some of them like dishes that used to come in laundry detergent boxes...
Ornithologists are suspicious that birds can count. Cowbirds create a scenario that gives credence to this unusual ability. Cowbirds are really lousy parents. They are the worst. They have no idea how to change diapers or do any of those essential parental things so they...
We awoke this morning to yet more senseless acts of violence instigated by ignorance and hate. As we listened to news reporters describing the scenes of destruction we heard words and phrases like “sophisticated,” “masterminded by,” “highly trained,” “well coordinated.” I would like to register...
Have you ever been a dangling participle? A participle is a modifier much like an adjective. Often it denotes some form of action that describes the subject of a sentence. An example is “The flying hawk never flapped its wings.” Flying is the participle. If...
“No” is a favorite word of two-year-olds. Sometimes parents are alarmed at what appears to be rebellion and the beginning of the road to perdition. However, child developmentalists assure us it is a healthy sign of the emergence and growth of individuality. The child is...
I absolutely love chocolate chip cookies. I love them small. I love them large. I love them with tiny chips. I love them with chunks. I love them made by Keebler’s elves. I love them made by my wife. I love them baked. I love...
When I was seventeen years old our high school temperance society went, as part of larger trip, to a night court in Baltimore. The atmosphere was seedy, dark and an amazing snapshot of city government at work. The judge was wearing a robe and did...
When we are very small we have very limited options. We have to eat what others give us and go wherever the family car takes us. As we mature the menu expands. We can decide whether or not to continue to eat the family fare...
One of the many pregnant scenes from Schindler’s List occurs when the camp commandant is drinking with Oskar Schindler and Schindler says to the commandant, “Power is when we have every justification to kill and we don’t.” Paul wrote to the Romans, “For the wages of sin is death.”...