Yearly Archives: 2011

During five years as executive editor at an educational research lab, the statement of one person made me so mad, I can retrieve that emotion any time I consider what she said. She said, “Bring me a thinker. I can … Continue reading →

Walking past Illinois Masonic hospital today, I crossed paths with a woman wearing a contraption on her right leg that looked as if the leg was a lipstick stuck in a shiny case. Slight of build was she with a … Continue reading →

Scanning the cranial horizon is fun when flying. It beats getting to know your seat-mate, which might be fun, too; except you can never be sure. I like to look at the little domes of heads atop the bodies of … Continue reading →

There are many reasons why folks don’t write. Lack of talent isn’t one of them. Writing FOR an audience is. Write TO the audience instead. It’s fine to think about writing FOR children or FOR Hollywood or FOR the record … Continue reading →

I attended college during the years when protesting America’s involvement in the war in VietNam primarily comprised curriculum. As I recall, most of us didn’t understand the war. Who was fighting who for what reason was beside the point. We … Continue reading →

A flowering plant on our balcony must be a Hawaiian expat, from the looks of it. From the looks of it, it’s longing for home. Its shamrocky lettuce leaves are perky but its bloom instinct is asleep. Daily, what I … Continue reading →

Coolness became important during fifth grade at Immaculate Conception school in Elmhurst. If my fledgling fellows were cool earlier, I missed it or maybe they just didn’t tell me, since I showed little potential for it. It was cool having … Continue reading →

I don’t know where my brain has run off to lately, but today it surprised me with something I should have known for decades, but didn’t. The noun “job” is also the name of a book in the bible. The … Continue reading →

The only one who called my Dad Henry “Good Man,” as in “How are you, my good man?” was Bill Pickens, who was born in the southern United States and worked at Sears Roebuck with Dad in Chicago. They fished … Continue reading →

One of my favorite things to do in Elmhurst’s Immaculate Conception church when I was a preteener, was lighting a vigil light, which were stacked up like tiny stadium seats to the right of the altar, under the Joseph-holding-baby-Jesus statue. … Continue reading →