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 »

 

Some who have followed my blog may remember that I lived in West Berlin for a time in the early 1980’s.  I took time off from graduate school, flew to Amsterdam with my Student Eurrail pass, and began what would turn out to be the/… Read full post »

Hell arrived in the city of Dresden on February 13, 1945, at exactly thirty seconds past 10:10 PM.  At that moment a squadron of British de Havilland Mosquito fighter-bombers dropped bright red targeting flares over the German city.  Two and a half minutes later, with the Mosquitos already/… Read full post »

 

We were far more nervous than you, of that we're certain.  Still, you were no doubt confused.  Things had been difficult for you during your first year.  We don't know the details, and we are probably glad of that.  There were certainly ugly moments, though, inci… 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 »

 

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
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As many who follow my blog know, my employer declared me surplus last December.  I can't really criticize my immediate supervisory chain for what they were forced to do.  They simply implemented policy that was handed down to them from upper-most management.  Based on the company's sol… Read full post »

                                

 

There is an article in today’s Chicago Tribune about Millvina Dean.  “Who is she?&rdquo/… Read full post »

Living in a fairly small city in the American heartland, I could at least take some comfort that the insatiable greed and irresponsibility that has brought such damage to our nation’s economy was limited, I thought, to the financial bigwigs in New York and San Francisco, and 100 miles down I-90… Read full post »

It's another cold, gray day Northern Illinois.  There were snow flurries yesterday, and large mounds of dirty snow still stand tall where parking lots, streets, and driveways were put to the snow plow last month.  Despite the cold temperatures, or perhaps because of them, the arrival of Mar… Read full post »

For those younger than 35 or 40 years old, it is hard to imagine just how influential Walter Cronkite was.  He ruled the airwaves every evening for 30 minutes, when he told families all over the nation "the way it is."  There was no CNN, MSNBC, or FoxNews.  The Internet existed… 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 »

 

It was a cool morning on September 28, 1874, as the sun cast its first shadows over the canyon floor.  The past few days had seen the first hint of autumn’s refreshing relief from the harsh summer heat of the Southern Plains.  The heart-shaped leaves of the cottonw/… Read full post »

It had happened back in the furthest reaches of his memory, 75 years or more before.  He was a little boy of 3 or 4 at the time, now he was nearing his 80^th birthday.  The memory of what he saw lacked certain detail, but one image remained clear, like a/… Read full post »

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 »

This week marks the anniversary of the erection of the Berlin Wall.  The story is familiar to anyone who grew up in the 1940’s through the 1960’s.  In the wee hours of the morning of August 13, 1961, East German security forces sealed off the border, hoping to stem the tide… Read full post »

Last week, I blogged about one of my favorite coastal areas in the United States, Padre Island National Seashore.  Today, we travel 1,400 miles to the northeast, from the hot, semi-arid coast of South Texas, to the humid,  cool, often frigid shore of Lake Michigan, in the northwestern part… 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 »

Yesterday, Chicago's Grant Park was the scene of pure joy.  Perhaps the images from Obama's celebratory rally will erase the memory of a far sadder time forty years ago.  Will Obama, the nation's first post-Baby Boom president, pull our nation out of the divisiveness from which it has suffe… Read full post »

With thanks to Verbal Remedy, via Somyr Perry & Ommatidia.org for the concept.....

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 Conceived of another man’s seed, born from another woman’s womb, you are nonetheless joined to us, the electron orbiting wildly and pur… 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 »

Mary Wilson was the prettiest girl in Westboro, West Virginia.  All of the Wilson girls were pretty, but Mary’s beauty surpassed everyone else’s.  She could have married anyone she wanted.  Westboro, however, was a small town with few choices.  Few choices of men. … Read full post »

The old one-room school stands by a country crossroads, miles from the nearest town.

 

 

 Abandoned and forgotten, it bears the scars of years of neglect.

 

 

 

 

 

The small cloak room by the front entrance has not held a child's coat since…

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It's hard to name my favorite movie of all time, but if pressed I'd have to say it is "To Ki… Read full post »