Let’s face reality – to paraphrase Rodney Dangerfield, “We, the tea drinkers of the United States, get no respect”.
If you’re a coffee drinker, I can’t expect you to empathize with our plight, but you might think about how you’d feel if the circumstances were reversed – just substitute the word ‘coffee’ for ‘tea’ throughout this lamentation.
The annual Christmas Pageant at school was an event I looked forward to as a young child – but that anticipation was always tinged with a dose of apprehension because the role each of us would play in the pageant was determined by a contest that took place in the classroom.
Read MoreMy first visit to Palm Island was forty years ago – in November of 1979. The trip was memorable for all the right reasons, not the least of which was nearly primitive nature of the place – a 135-acre island resort, devoid of a hotel, but bespeckled with “villas”.
Without an airfield or even a makeshift runway, Palm Island was accessible only by water. The sole restaurant on the island was the open-air dining room which played second fiddle to the glorious old bar where rum punch was available for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Read MoreI wrote this commentary recently for our local newspaper. Permission To Fly, Layng Martine, Jr.'s memoir, is awe-inspiring and, at the same time, poignant. Put it on your summer reading list!
Read MoreImmigration is the bedrock of the uniqueness of America. Our cultural heterogeneity is indeed a hallmark of our Americanism. We are proud to discover where our ancestors hail from – proof is in the popularity of the presents we give to our nearest and dearest with names like “23andMe”, “AncestryDNA” and “National Geographic Geno DNA Ancestry Kit”.
Read MoreThis post is a commentary I wrote recently for our local newspaper. Reading this biography of Betty Ford by Lisa McCubbin was both emotionally wrenching and in the end wonderfully uplifting. What a great summer read! Read my full review.
Read MoreThe Good Is Oft Interred with Their Bones… But Not so for This Man
His name was Gregory Proctor. We met only twice, each time on the occasion of a several-day business meeting in the Washington D.C. law office of K&L Gates where he was the Senior Practice Assistant to a partner at the firm. In total, the words between us could not have spanned more than 30 minutes.
Read MoreThe definition of Grace is that free and unearned favor endowed by God. I believe in grace, although I have to admit I hadn’t given it much thought until an event some years ago brought it into perspective for me.
Read MoreUntil the age of eighteen, I had never read a newspaper nor perused the pages of a magazine. I had never eaten in a restaurant nor shopped in a grocery store. I had never bought any clothes or cosmetics or a single item that could be called my own. I had never heard of Elvis Presley or Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, or Eliza- beth Taylor. I had never watched television, nor made a phone call. I did not know how to dance.
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