My cleaning lady arrived the other day with her mop, dusting rag, and some sound advice about food. When it comes to that subject, she seems to know her stuff. So, as I readied to pour the dressing on my salad, I listened with interest to what she had to say. “Some salad dressings aren’t […]
A friend and former colleague was excited to run for a seat on the Indiana University Board of Trustees this year. His enthusiasm was short-lived. At the end of the Indiana General Assembly’s legislative session, the state’s budget bill included a strange provision: It decreed that all nine members of the I.U. Trustees would be
It was maybe thirty years ago, when I was a young reporter, that I said to a friend. “If you aren’t a cynic when you die, you haven’t lived long enough.” I thought of my observation all those years ago when I read an announcement from one of my favorite bookstores, The Mysterious Press in
I’ve been hearing Senator Elizabeth Warren talk about taxing unrealized capital gains for some time now. I always thought it was a bad idea until my stock portfolio took a big hit this past week. When I say “big hit,” I have to admit it’s all relative. Anytime I lose more than $1,000 in my
We were having dinner with some new friends when the wife told us about her daughter who had lost her job. Just like that it was gone. She worked for an NGO in a foreign country. She and her children love where they live and she seemed to like her job, my friend said. Her
The Art Center on our little island in Southwest Florida was hard hit by back-to-back hurricanes last fall. The hardwood floors had to be replaced as well as some drywall. Now the county, which owns the building, wants to put down carpet as the new flooring. “Carpet?!” I said when my friend told me this
Who is Gilberto Coronel I wondered as I read his glowing, over-the-top story about Adrien Brody’s acceptance speech at the Oscar’s ceremony on Sunday? Brody was named best actor just about the time I was thinking about heading off to bed. Gilberto seemed to think it was a speech for the ages. He wrote: “Adrien
A Facebook friend shared an article from The Washington Post on Sunday. I couldn’t read it because I’m not a subscriber. I thought she wasn’t either—anymore. So I checked. On October 25 she made a big deal out of telling everyone who reads her social media posts that she’d cancelled her subscription. She ended her
My man called the contractor who is remodeling our condo yesterday morning to ask if anything could be done to speed up progress on our unit. It’s been ten months for a job that was estimated to take six. The response was nothing. I mean he didn’t return the call and say “Sorry, nothing can
I scrimped together the money for my first pair of Bass Weejuns when I was a senior in college and working part-time at Nathan Hale’s in Bloomington, Indiana. Those $12.95 navy penny loafers took me to a level of cool that I never again attained. Until now. A couple of days ago, I posted a
