Here’s a heresy with a twist ending. As a kid, I hated summer. Oh, I know volumes have been written about the joys of the sunny season. The old fishin’ hole. Camping […]
Back when I hated summers …
We were all in this together
I blame it on the hippies. The counterculture movement of the Sixties transformed America and the effect spilled over worldwide. Old traditions – many of them worth abandoning – were trashed, new […]
The numbers need to slow down
Some things in life – here comes the pun – just don’t add up. This column is about higher mathematics. Oh, read it anyway! Do you remember sitting in your algebra or […]
Meet Pat, the polarized bear
This is Pat. Pat is a polar bear. I gave Pat that name because it is gender-neutral, just in case Pat decides to switch teams, like Caitlyn Jenner. Pat lives in the […]
Here’s not looking at you, kid
Note to readers: Jim Tortolano’s “Retorts” column is taking a week off. Here’s a classic column from a year ago when the pandemic was just getting underway. I am bored. Don’t get […]
A tale of two (or more) cities
If you want to find one, all-encompassing picture of Huntington Beach, Orange County’s fourth-largest city, you’ll have to dig further than just the image of a surfboard stuck in the sand, with […]
Bird Talk: some high-flying wings
By Jim and Marilyn Tortolano You’ve heard – or maybe used the term – “just wing it.” That usually means to improvise quickly or carelessly, the outcome of the finished product […]
A bird … a plane … a mistake
By Jim Tortolano Comic book iconoclast Howard Chaykin once quipped that the “Golden Age of comics is … 12.” By that, he meant that the art of sequential story-telling was forever trapped […]
All That I Know I Learned From …
Editor’s note: Jim’s brain is taking the week off. Here’s a classic “Retorts” from October 2019. At my deceptively youthful-apprearing age, I have collected a brain-full of witticisms, wisdom, old wives tales, […]
The Great Bunny Run of ’21
You may have read in The Tribune or elsewhere that Target made a profit of $15 billion last year despite the COVID-crippled economy. I think Marilyn and I, by ourselves, contributed […]
