Treasured Time One of my favorite bumper stickers is the one that reads, “If I’d known grandkids were so much fun, I would have had them first,” which is similar to what author Gore Vidal advised: “Never have children, only grandchildren.” Good luck with that. I’m in a grandparenting state of mind because this past […]
Round, Brown & 400 Pounds If you were out of town with no access to television or the Internet, you could be forgiven for not knowing that the Crescenta Valley had a 400-pound, fur-covered, dumpster-diving visitor of the bear persuasion in the early morning hours the Tuesday after Easter. During the morning in question, multiple […]
Words vs. Wood I have a couple of good friends who are in the construction trade. As independent contractors, they make their living building things. They spend the majority of their workdays wielding manly power tools to dig, saw, sand, drill, hammer, mix, fasten and grind all sorts of materials and turn them into things […]
The Boys in the Band Forget John, Paul, George and Ringo. In 1967 the hottest band in the Crescenta Valley was “Mother’s Complaint” whose members consisted of Rene, Kevin, Dennis and yours truly. In spite of the fact that I’ve made a living as a writer most of my adult life, I won’t be surprised […]
Living In Wonder-land Increasingly, we’re living in a land of wonders. I submit for your consideration: I wonder … if anyone else finds it unbelievable that the California Department of Health Services has just made it possible for boys (“boys” being the operative word here) as young as 12 to order condoms – free of […]
Pumping It Up – And Up Alright, this is getting ridiculous. On Sunday morning two weeks ago I filled the tank in my truck before driving down to visit our son in San Diego. I was more than a bit peeved that the lowest price I could find along Foothill was $3.79 a gallon. Silly […]
We Are All Connected It was around 12:45 p.m. last Friday when I returned to my office from a physical therapy session on my bum knee. The familiar ping from my phone alerted me that a new text message was waiting. It was from my son at college down near San Diego asking me if […]
Bowled Over By Commercials I’m glad it’s finally February. For one thing, I can’t remember a January before this last one that I had to turn on the ceiling fan just to be able to sleep comfortably at night. With any luck, this month will at last bring some more seasonally cold temps and rainfall. […]
Tolerance, Trash, TV & Me So, where were we? Well, in addition to receiving vitriol-soaked missives attacking me for daring to voice an opinion different from theirs, and – in the name of tolerance and civil dialogue, ironically – demanding the removal of my column from this paper and the silencing of my views (I […]
Primetime or Slime Time? It might surprise some readers, but I’m actually not old enough to have watched original broadcasts during the infamous “golden days” of television. You know, those days when Lucy and Ricky Ricardo’s bedroom had two twin beds in it lest viewers get the idea that they actually slept together as husband […]