If I ever had to cast a movie of my own life, here's how it would go:

James Garner as my dad.  A young James Garner.

A young Deborah Kerr as my mother when she was younger.

My sister would say Doris Roberts… Read full post »

The only other person I knew who'd been on the Orient Express bought a sterling silver cigarette holder as a prop for the occasion.

I remember hearing this over champagne cocktails in the Pump Room in Chicago one flickery night. 

A sterling silver cigarette holder.   

It seemed appropr… Read full post »

I've pondered frequently since Michael Jackson's unexpected death earlier this summer that he must have known he didn't have long to live.

I happen to be one of those who believes he didn't expect to even make it through the tour.

Did he have any idea when he sat down back… Read full post »

Predictably, every year at least one person, on finding out I live in Florida, says something like, "But don't you miss the four seasons?"

Of course, those people don't realize that a summer in Wisconsin can include all four seasons.  Autumn arrived a couple of weeks ago, and close on its… Read full post »

SLC International Airport, Salt Lake City, Utah, one of the first things I saw the morning Matthew Shepard died. 

It was a route I'd flown countless times.  SLC-MSP.  Salt Lake City to Minneapolis.  I thought nothing of it.  

The day before… Read full post »

When 'Marge Simpson' and 'Playboy' are both trending topics on Twitter, it can't be good.

The rumors are true; the hallowed housewife of Springfield, famous for looking like a Smurf Bride of Frankenstein, is gracing the cover of the November 2009 issue of Playboy magazine. … Read full post »

FIVE TWENTY-EIGHT.  A.M.   (although it seemed scarcely a minute past midnight when the frozen ring of the kitchen bell pulled my feet out from their comfortable curled-under between me and the old Army cot, and into the only pair of genuine Levi Strauss bluejeans I had ever… Read full post »

The Federal Aviation Administration released the audio recording Thursday of the conversations of an air traffic controller in the Teterboro, New Jersey Airport control tower moments before the crash of a tour helicopter and small airplane over the Hudson River on August 8, 2009.… Read full post »

Judy Collins saved my life in high school. Of course, she didn't learn that until many years later.

When I finally met Judy Collins face-to-face, she looked much like this, with lots of  mil… Read full post »

Madeline 'Kara' Neumann, the 11-year-old Wisconsin girl who died in March 2008 after her parents failed to get her medical attention for undiagnosed diabetes, relying only on prayer.   Her parents were sentenced today in a Wisconsin courtroom. 

The Wisconsin par… Read full post »

Tom DeLay danced a samba on Monday night's show in spite of advice from his doctors and ABC's producers against it.  "What's a little pain when we can party?"

No one can say he didn't go out blazing.

Sources are reporting that former House… Read full post »

Bummer.

There was no joy in Cheeseville as the former golden boy of Green Bay donned purple to take down the only team in the NFL he'd never vanquished--the Green Bay Packers.

The Packers battled back from a  30-14 deficit in the fourth quarter to finish within… Read full post »

The Telegraph is reporting that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's famous anti-Israeli rants might be more than they appear:  the Ahmadinejad family was apparently Jewish before they converted to Islam.

Based on a photograph of Ahmadinejad displaying his Iranian identification papers in 200… Read full post »

Chicago's Olympic wishes have been dashed, after being eliminated in the first round of voting against Madrid, Tokyo and Rio.   

Despite pitches by President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle in Copenhagen Friday, and heavy lobbying by the Chicago continge… Read full post »

Seven years after her abduction at knifepoint from her Salt Lake City home, Elizabeth Smart, 21, took the witness stand Thursday in a Utah courtroom against her accused kidnapper, Brian David Mitchell.

Smart was only fourteen in June 2002 when she was kidnapped by Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Barzee,… Read full post »

Australian film director Baz Luhrmann, who took over the paddles from head judge Len Goodman Monday and Tuesday night on ABC's Dancing With the Stars.  Luhrmann's film "Strictly Ballroom" was the inspiration for the reality TV show and its British counterpart.  (photo courtes… Read full post »

A Utah judge has cleared the way for Elizabeth Smart, now 21, to testify against the man who kidnapped her as a teenager seven years ago.  Smart will testify against Brian David Mitchell Thurday morning in a Utah courtroom.

Elizabeth Smart, the 21-year-old young woman from U… Read full post »

The Secret Service got an assist from a Southern California blogger at 'The Political Carnival' on Sunday when she tipped them off to a poll on Facebook asking whether President Obama should be killed.

GottaLaff  broke the story online Sunday when she discovered the 'Obama Death Poll' on Fa… Read full post »

I've watched with interest in the months since I  joined Twitter as one news organization after another, and one celebrity after another, has gotten Twitter wrong.

I've seen it characterized as "tweeting one's oatmeal" more often than I've seen it credited for bringing anything ser… Read full post »

The New York Times has joined the chorus of those calling for New York Governor David Paterson to step aside and not seek a full term in 2010.

In an editorial running in their Sunday edition, the editors say of Paterson:

"As well meaning as Mr. Paterson has been,… Read full post »

I spent much of yesterday in search of loons again in the Wisconsin northwoods.

Here's the money shot:

First runner-up:

Second runner-up:

Third runner-up:

My Tupperware lid, which… Read full post »

U.S. President Barack Obama issued a statement at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh Friday morning accusing Iran of building a covert nuclear facility near Qum.  He was joined in condemning Iran for this action by French President Nicholas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown: … Read full post »

The following letter was penned from a tent in Melun, France (just south of Paris), in early April 1945,  by a young American soldier stationed there during World War II, and sent to his parents back home in Chicago, Illinois.  It details his experience as a C-47 pilot flying in… Read full post »

The world famous Hope Diamond, shown here in its familiar Harry Winston setting.  The famous gemstone will be displayed at the museum without a setting until April 2010. 

For some, hope might be the thing with feathers, but for the Smithsonian, it's going to go au natur… Read full post »

While their fearless leader is an ocean away delivering an address to a (not-so-packed) crowd in New York, the Iranian authorities have decided to deliver a judo chop to the throat of Iranian fashion and culture.

Curvy mannequins need no longer apply.

 … Read full post »