To be honest, I can't remember when Linda and I last set foot in a movie theater. The COVID-19 Pandemic caused a paradigm shift in our entertainment menu. First, theaters were shuttered. Then, the films released held little interest for us. Then came A Man Called Otto starring Tom Hanks. On a rainy Sunday, we trekked to our theater of choice to vie...

I love Sweet and Sour Chicken. It doesn't matter if it's in a restaurant or homemade. Linda likes it too, as long as there are plenty of sweet pickle chunks in it. The problem is that it is not necessarily nutritious in that you serve it over rice or noodles, each of which add 100 calories and 20 grams of carbohydrates for our senior citizen servin...

Last week there was another school shooting. This time the perpetrator was apprehended alive and taken into custody, while still in possession of the firearm. Fortunately, there was only one victim and the wounded individual will recover from all but the lingering trauma. While it might seem that this shooting was far less horrendous than one in wh...

Hey! Every media outlet takes time to review highlights of the passing year from their perspective. Why can't I? I will celebrate three quarters of a century in a mere five months. I suppose, in and of itself, that is an accomplishment. I have avoided, by luck or planning, addiction, accident, disease, and the wrath of God (or Linda). I look forwar...

I have read the Executive Summary of the January 6th Committee. It is publicly available in PDF form. I will not be guilty of the same crime as the media – that being interpreting information for the reader/viewer. I implore you to download it and read it. I will continue to fight my way through the entire 800 plus pages of the report. I consider i...

We must never put the President of the United States on a pedestal. They are all, first and foremost, people, people with odd habits and strange ways. They are not divinely anointed, as a king might claim to be, nor dictators. They are, at least up until the present, just men who ran for the office and won. But many of them had their own quirks and...

Two years ago, a strange virus turned the world on its head. Talk about a paradigm shift! Things that were completely unheard of then, are now the standard. People work from home, or Maui, dialing in on high-speed networks and taking meetings by Zoom. Grocery stores shop for you and put your groceries in your trunk. Meals are delivered to your door...

--Disclaimer—I've tried to use my BLOG posts to get my readers, few that they are, to think about the subjects about which I write, and then to form their own opinions. But I've tried not to take sides. Not this time. — A former president, a man whom the electorate once entrusted with the defense of our republic, has publicly announced his desire t...

Stemming from Lutheran traditions in the late 19th century, we have the Christmas tradition of the Advent Calendar. Originally made of wood the structures, small or large, had either 24 or 25 doors to count down the days of December, one at a time, until either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. In times past, small homemade candies, toys, and treats ...

I'm certain that each of us has personal feelings about the meaning of the Christmas season. It's different by culture and generation. The 'standard' American presentation of Christmas is a New England, Currier and Ives, Charles Dickens, east coast kind of thing. New Mexico, California, Hawaii, Florida, and Texas seldom have a white Christmas. They...

Heterogenous means unalike or distinct from one another. The opposite of heterogeneous is homogeneous. Let us speak of nations as an example of both. Iceland is homogeneous. It is Ivory pure – 99.44% Caucasian, blond, etc. Why is immaterial. That Iceland is homogeneous just is. The United States is anything but. We are, by history, heterogeneous. W...

Great dining events hover upon the horizon. Yet, let us dwell not upon the Christmas Feast, nor upon the Thanksgiving Groaning Board. For these culinary events are but a part of larger annual celebrations, predictable both in content and flavor profile. Rather, let us look forward to that extended period of darkness, weather chill, and nutritional ...

12:00On September 17 of this year, a terrorist squirrel sacrificed itself to bring life for 20,000 residents to a standstill. Throwing itself on the conductors of a high-tension transformer at a Dominion Energy substation, I suspect its last thoughts were 'Oooh, that tingles', but then the lights went out; the squirrel's and ours. The power outage ...

The drizzly weather as we left Sydney, Nova Scotia, foreshadowed the weather that would follow us for the next four days. Fiona was relentless in her pursuit of us. As we left Sydney, we heard that the storm track had Halifax in the bullseye. That sealed the fate of our other Nova Scotia port, Gaspe, which was also closed by Canadian authorities. T...

Earlier this week, a widowed neighbor was picked up by an ambulance and taken to a local hospital to be treated for pneumonia related to a chronic illness. Widowed after a long marriage, he contracted a bacterial disease that nearly killed him. Now, he lives alone in a 2200 sq ft two story home full of the stuff they accumulated over a long and hap...

Viking Cruises aim to educate, inform, and enrich their passengers. Each in-port day includes one or another tour opportunity. On each cruise, one port visit is included. Other opportunities are available, at a cost. Seizing one of the additional opportunities is a matter of desire. For the most part, we took advantage of the included tour. You had...

Do you know what's scarier than Halloween? Election Day on November 8. We stand, all 335 million of us, at a fork in the road. This mid-term election is as threatening to our Republic as December 19, 1860; the day before South Carolina seceded from the Union, heralding the beginning of the Civil War. One way leads us on the level path. We are not a...

Our anniversary cruise would be aboard the Viking Star, one of a seven ship class of small cruise liners in the Viking fleet. She was put into service in 2015. Unlike the huge liners, she carries only 930 passengers. She is 745 feet long and 95 feet wide and can cruise at 20 knots (23 mph).  Our stateroom was on the port (left) side of the low...

I'm not sure if I'm shaking it in wonder, disgust, shame, or bewilderment. Each day those we have chosen as leaders, or those vying for the job, appear to go out of their way to prove that they are incapable of understanding the most basic concept of the word. Some are in thrall (or is it fear) of a pathological liar and narcissist, a would-be dict...

Did you like that title? I did. But it is a bit deceiving, and you will discover why as you keep reading. I'm dedicating the next few Thursday posts to the cruise that Linda and I took last month. We took a Viking Ocean cruise from New York City (New York City!!!!) to Montreal, via Boston and a few other ports of call (just wait). This was to be ou...