Samuel Clemens [Mark Twain] said, “I believe our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey.” I would go further and speculate that Mother Nature cooked up Homo sapiens to give the other animals on the planet something to joke about. One need only listen Continue reading “Column: Monkeys”
Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm II had a difficult birth, and 20 million people died as a consequence. You may not have realized there was a connection between World War I and injuries sustained by an infant who would someday become the German Emperor, but the connection is inescapable. Continue reading “Column: War”
# Mindful
We’re reaching the one year mark since the beginning of the pandemic and it feels pretty natural to reflect on what kind of year it has been. I must say, 365 days later and it’s still a trying time for everyone at the moment. Well not everyone. I’m sure my cat is enjoying Continue reading “Column: Mindful of the Needs of Others”
My brother took me to see “Them!” when I was 6 years old. It was horrifying and left me with nightmares for several days. I doubted that anything could be more frightening until he took me to see the “The Body Snatchers” (the original black and white version: not the gory remake). Continue reading “Them”
In 1347 a ship from Caffa, a city in the Crimea on the coast of the Black Sea under siege by Mongol attackers, docked in the port of Messina on the eastern coast of Sicily. Several of the sailors and passengers on board had taken ill during the passage. The army besieging Caffa Continue reading “The Pest”
The overdue mandate from Governor Lamont for schools to incorporate African-American, Black, Puerto Rican, and Latino studies into mainstream history courses in high schools across the state seems to have created some confusion amongst policies, terms and implementation.
The requirement Continue reading “What the Curriculum Change Really Means”
We had only an hour to hear from these two interesting artists at a live Facebook event with Fairfield University Downtown Bookstore. With over 500 viewers, the time seemed to go by rather quickly.
Chris Frantz and James Prosek spoke about how their journeys unfolded as a result Continue reading “A Tale of Two Artists: In Conversation With Chris Frantz and James Prosek”
In my coveted Covid solitude I’ve been forced to do things I wouldn’t normally do. There’s been introspection, meditation, contemplation and lots of word games. More games than I’d like to admit. That said – let us now take a closer look at the word “evolve.” Reverse the first four Continue reading “Live and Learn for Goodness Sake!”
As I stood more than six feet from two of my acquaintances, I listened to their complaints about vaccination scheduling. One recalled hours on the telephone to arrange an appointment for an elderly relative. The other described the futility of attempting to get scheduled on-line Continue reading “Socialized Distancing”
Wars are expensive. Our government has fought or aided others in several wars that have proved costly for our country and provided no tangible benefit. We do not hear much about our aid to the Saudi Arabian-backed conflict in Yemen. We never heard much about our support for a fellow Continue reading “Penny Wise”
