In 1986 I made my first trip to Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.  Like most first time visitors, my destination was the resort city of Cancun, with its white beaches, crystal clear turquoise waters, and thriving night life.  While there, I rented a car for a day and drove down the coast to/… Read full post »

David Broder is mad.  The native Illinoisan is upset with the state's governor, Rod Blagojevich.  He is upset with members of the media who have the audacity to give the governor a forum to defend his actions.  He is upset with colleagues who have downplayed the seriousness of the char/… Read full post »

Question 

What do the following companies have in common:  JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Capital One Financial, and KeyCorp?

Answer

1. All of these banks have received billions of dollars in taxpayer money.
2. All of these banks have laid off hundreds, or thousands, of their employee
… Read full post »

This is the fourth and final post about my 1993 trip to Cambodia.  Earlier posts dealt with daily street scenes in Phnom Penh, visible reminders of the war years, and a trip into the Cambodian countryside.

The primary reason I went to Cambodia in 1993 was to attend the wedding of… Read full post »

Over on Papa Salon (or is it Mama Salon?), the “War Room” is highlighting President Obama’s repudiation of the Bush Administration’s policies regarding the handling of prisoners in the War on Terror.  The President has issued several mandates.  One that may get the m/… Read full post »

This is the third in a series of posts detailing a trip to Cambodia I took in 1993.  You can read the other installments here and here.

In the spring of 1993, it was still quite dangerous along many of the poorly maintained highways in rural Cambodia.  The mountains in the/… Read full post »

Since my job went away:

• I spent about half as much as I otherwise would have spent this past Christmas.
• I have gone from eating out 2 or 3 times a week to eating out about once every other week.
• I occasionally order takeout from my favorite restaurant instead
… Read full post »

I live in Illinois, a state with very little in the way of wilderness.  There is a national forest in the far south, in a part of the state that has more in common with the Ozark region of southern Missouri or northern Arkansas than it has with Chicago.  But even/… Read full post »

                         From far yon co… Read full post »

My 2008 Federal Income Tax 1040 instruction booklet arrived in the mail.  Over the next 5 weeks I’ll receive all my W-2 and 1099 Forms.  This has me thinking about taxes, and an admittedly odd opinion about them that I have held for a very long time. 

Let’s eliminate… Read full post »

In early 1992, a good friend of mine accepted an offer to teach English in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.  While there, he met and fell in love with a young Cambodian woman, and the two of them married in March, 1993.  I was honored to be invited to the wedding, and serve/… Read full post »

Actually, the title of this post is a lie.  January 1, 2000 was not at all enjoyable.  I had consumed far too much wine and champagne the previous night for the day after to be any fun at all.  But the week leading up to that bacchanal was outstanding.

We left… Read full post »

Always late to the party, but here goes anyway...

1.  Neither of the corneas in my eyes are the ones that I was born with.

2.  I am the last of three children in my family.  It is much easier to be the last child than it is to… Read full post »

What two things do the following college football teams have in common:  North Carolina State, Northern Illinois, Notre Dame, Colorado State, Memphis, Southern Mississippi, and Vanderbilt?

1.  Each of these seven teams finished the regular football season with a 6-6 r… Read full post »

Sadie left us yesterday.

She was orphaned when she was only a few weeks old, after her mother was killed in a hit and run accident.  Motherless in Chicago’s late autumn cold, an outdoor cat like her would not live long.  Luckily, someo/… Read full post »

“On the question of so-called torture, we don't do torture. We never have.”   Dick Cheney, December 15, 2008 

These words were spoken by our Vice President in an interview with ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl.  Later in that same interview, Karl asked the Vice Pr… Read full post »

In 1981 I left the confines of my comfortable collegiate life and went off to Europe for about 8 months.  I was fortunate to have received a scholarship to study at a Goethe Institute in Bavaria, in a town about 25 miles outside of Munich.  It was a great time to/… Read full post »

December 12, 627:  While Western Europe was deep into its medieval slumber, a great storm raged in the east, in that part of the old Roman Empire that had been ruled from Constantinople for three centuries.  On this date 1,381 years ago, a war that had lasted decades finally came to/… Read full post »

From an interview with former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill on the “Today” show, January 12, 2004:

Katie Couric:   Very quickly, will you vote for President Bush in November?

Paul O’Neill    Probably.  I don’t see anybody that strikes/… Read full post »

You knew the call was coming, but the resolution of the issue was still unknown.  A workforce reduction of 4% company-wide doesn’t sound too threatening, but you knew your little corner of the company was to be the primary target.  More than 4% would be affected in your office; the on/… Read full post »

Recently, The Biblio Files posted their literary Christmas wish list.  Anyone who missed that post can view it here.  Their Christmas list made me think about my own book collection.  It is certainly nowhere near as extensive as the Biblio Files’, I'm sure, but it still has a few/… Read full post »

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  It seems a more “pure” holiday than either Christmas or Easter.  The latter two have lost much of their Christian sanctity due to the infusion of completely non-Christian, cartoonish symbolism.  In the case of Christmas, unbridled comme/… Read full post »

Lately, my 8 year old son has been intrigued with China.  It began when a friend of ours traveled to China and gave my son some Chinese currency.  His interest was reinforced earlier this year during the Olympic games.  Yesterday he told me he will probably live in China one… Read full post »

We had just finished our mid-afternoon nap, when all the kindergarteners lay their little towels out on the floor and pretend to sleep for 10 minutes.  Our young teacher, Miss Shaw, was now preparing the class for an art project, so I raced my friend Roger to see which of us/… Read full post »