_{Photo Wikimedia Commons}._{Of course this is not me.}

I am not much of a shopper, that being said I won't be gracing our local Abercrombie and Fitch Store any time soon.  

About twice a year I go to my favorite stores and load up on shirts, tank tops, capris,… Read full post »

Here's how someone close to me who Shall Not Be Named but might hold several degrees and academic rank describes graduation: processional march march march hot robes funky hat blah blah blah prayers blah blah blah long boring speech citing Voltaire or CS Lewis blah blah blah presentation of medal to… Read full post »

 When my brother got divorced several years ago, he asked me not to talk with him about it.  He said I had not been divorced, and couldn’t really understand what he was going through.  Fair enough.

He used a wonderful analogy that applies in many human interactions. He said th… Read full post »

When Ben Trockman travels, he goes like a rock star with an entourage.  Trockman is lobbying in Washington DC this week for awareness about the difficulty of air travel for individuals in electric wheelchairs.

 The former national Easter Seals representative is always accompanied b… Read full post »

I'm in a hotel  somewhere between Hurricane, West Virginia, and eastern Siberia.  How we got here, I don't know.  The Triple AAA Trip-Tik left out a street and we ended up going entirely through the Charleston Airport.

We had to choose "Arriving/Departing Flights" or park in the concre… Read full post »

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON www.the-broad-side.com

When something terrible happens, we filter it through the lenses of our own lives. When I heard about the Boston Marathon bombing, I first thought of friends from Bowling Green, Kentucky.  Was Jeff running yesterday—with his wife and their you… Read full post »

The simple answer is, because I can.

I know I'm different.  And I'm perfectly okay with that.  I've always liked the big green Sinclair dinosaurs, and I was a big fan of "Dino" on "The Flintstones."

Being the Poor White Trash that we are, we once owned an above ground… Read full post »

This week I had three  experiences with customer services.  Here are the stories, and then, a question.

At the package store:

I mailed our son a big package from Target for his birthday this week (nothing says love like a boatload of processed foods) and didn't have a box large enough… Read full post »

Going to the Museum of Modern Art in New York is on my list of "Top Ten Favorite Activities."  MOMA houses my favorite painting "Starry Night" along with some memorable Matisse's and Wyeth's "Christina's World."  The latter has taken my breath away since I first saw it reprinted in a fifth… Read full post »

My brother texted me three times this morning before I even got out of bed.  He wanted me to think of silly things that our mother said to us.  Today would have been my mother's 81st birthday, and it's okay to celebrate, remember, mourn and think about Mom.

What my brother… Read full post »

Jake, please change the cover.  First of all, I'm mortified about the spelling error in my headline which I wrote you about shortly after it appeared.  Second, the cover needs to be changed.  There's been a lot of great posts you are missing over the last week.

Are you there?  Any… Read full post »

When will it happen again?  Will I be a victim when I am volunteering, as I did this morning, at our local rehabilitation center?  Or will it be my husband at the university?  Will it be our son, interning on Capitol Hill?  Or my nephew in his Big Ten university classroom? … Read full post »

Food for thought.

Next to our gun culture, we’re a sports culture.  Think about how the students reacted at Penn State when their beloved coach Joe Paterno left. Think about the alleged decade-long cover-up of Jerry Sandusky’s heinous activities about sex with children under… Read full post »

This discussion started earlier this evening when my husband and I argued about the number of Popes since the year we were born.  (Seven, by the way.)

We are both total information nerds, and frequently have these kinds of discussions--which are easily answered by a quick look at the Net.  … Read full post »

Three times this week, I’ve had a conversation with someone trying to help a family member navigate a health crisis

 In my personal and professional life, I am tied to our healthcare system.  In my small business, I provide consulting and editorial  services to health care organ… Read full post »

I will cross post as more people write their thoughts.   Tomorrow when I'm somewhat lucid I will also put in some great thoughts from several people who didn't want to write a post, but had significant things to say.

 Zanelle:

 http://open.salon.com/view_message.php?mid=767283

Tink

&nb… Read full post »

My husband and I just returned from one of those cheapie Las Vegas vacations.  We were gone four days and we had a nice time.  Mostly, we went because we wanted to see  Hoover Dam (more on that later), but I was  struck by the Haves and the Have Nots of… Read full post »

 Forty-plus years ago my family drove to California on summer vacation.  My dad was a teacher and didn’t ever take off during the school year, so we traveled in the summer.

Our family sedan did not have air conditioning, and 1972 was a hot summer.  We drove from Indiana… Read full post »

The new CEO of Yahoo, who happens to be female, stirred it up this week, presenting a new policy that nips telecommuting in the proverbial bud. Trying to save Yahoo, Marissa Mayer made what many pundits are calling a "bold move" regarding her mandate to bring telecommuters back into the fold… Read full post »

 In 1991, I was "reduced in force" at a local hospital and the job I found to replace it eight months later was at a hospital 38 miles away (not 37 or 39, but 38.  When you have a one-year-old at home, you calculate the exact time and distance to… Read full post »

I like Open Salon a lot, but it is not perfect.  I started blogging in 2009 and have been here pretty much ever since, though I did abide by the month-long mega-flounce last fall.

 I occasionally blog on the other site with the same initials and appreciate the levels its… Read full post »

Morning light glittered and danced across the wooden pews in the chapel, even though the arched windows tendered only diffuse winter sun.

The small college orchestra  in this United Methodist chapel played  "All Creatures Great and Small," with illegal "Alleluias," especially enjoye… Read full post »

_{Writer's Note: After writing this essay, Ms. Spitzsnogel went through a tangle of necklaces in the bottom of an old shoebox and found this precious item. Looking at it with a magnifying glass, she noted the "14K" mark, which makes her feel sad and happy at the same time.}… Read full post »

In today's style of bombastic magazine covers, "Time"  proclaimed Marco Rubio as "The Republican Savior."  The subhead reads "How Marco Rubio became the new voice of the GOP." 

As the 24/7 pundits babble in the background -- complete with a State of the Union speech countd… Read full post »

In the last year I've had a change in status. According to all the medical tests and indicators, I've moved from "obese" to "overweight." This is not a distinction without a difference -- in the medical community there is morbidly obese, obese, and overweight and each nomenclature comes with… Read full post »