This is the time of year when people ask what you’re thankful for. Personally, I’ll be grateful if our new dog, Shadow, doesn’t burn the house down. A too-tall Flat-Coated Retriever mix, […]
Who let the dog out? He did
“Thank you for your service”
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” – John F. Kennedy, 1961 “What’s in it for me?” – Too Many People, 2021 […]
The wild world of new words
Our American English language is constantly changing and always has been. But in today’s super-heated political/cultural climate people are quickly inventing words and terms intended to be pointed in defense of, or […]
GTT for the greener pastures?
“Bloom where you’re planted” – Anonymous. About 200 years ago, people wanting to start a new life sometimes used the acronym GTT, which stood for “Gone to Texas.” At first it was […]
The assault on open space
Where do the children play? That’s the title of a pop music song from the Seventies, but it’s also a quiet crisis that’s bad and bound to get a lot worse. Recent […]
Who are your real enemies?
This nation is so divided politically and culturally that we are seeing people who believe and act differently from us as enemies. Not only is that unwise, unkind and un-useful (is that […]
“Friends, Romans … yikes!”
It was a dark and scary night. Studies have indicated that, next to death, the thing that people fear the most is getting up in front of a group to speak. That […]
Willing to get out and push?
Jim Tortolano has the week off from writing his “Retorts” column. Here’s a classic from 2017. One of the reasons that the Germans failed on the western front during World War II, and the […]
Casinos, wells that never were
Second of two “alternate local history” accounts. Almost any area of Orange County can point to “might-have-been” scenarios. Few have quite as many, with potential huge impacts, as those that bypassed Garden […]
What might (or not) have been
Disneyland in Burbank? The Angels in Long Beach? Oil derricks in Garden Grove? What sort of “Twilight Zone” world is that? Well, those things do seem sort of off, but they are […]
