If you're a parent or have had parents, if you're a college student or have had college students, if you ever tried to do something nice for Mom and screwed it up just a little ... this is for you.

I first told this story in 2005, feeling the pain… Read full post »

Be Who You Are, Not Who I Tell You To Be

My husband was and is a hands-on father. Involved. Loving and supportive. Caring more about the kid's learning and safety and success and happiness than society's gratuitous rules. It worked.

Son has always been… Read full post »

Poor us. Life is handing out a lot of lemons and we're not having much luck making lemonade.

It's causing some nasty moods. A lot of us have been under the weather or beset by the weather. Feeling blue. Out of sorts. Grumpy. Not feeling the love.

We… Read full post »

Love is in the air this week. The glow of new or renewed romance will last at least a few more days, maybe longer. Perfect timing to tell you about my very First Kiss. 

My ground rules for a real first kiss are simple. It should be a… Read full post »

I've been reading articles all week about how to "cope" with Thanksgiving. I don't get it. This is by far the coolest -and warmest- holiday of the year.

Thanksgiving is a paid day or two off from work and school. It's secular, non-dressy, no gifts are even involved.

The whole… Read full post »

Counter-clockwise from right: the late Gov Shapp, his chief of staff Dick Doran (RIP), a local judge, State Senator Vince Fumo, Buddy's protege and successor, now in prison. I almost went to jail too.

This year's election is being framed… Read full post »

Hurricane Sandy is not a joke or a myth or a government conspiracy. This monster storm, just in time for Halloween, is going to pound an area from Massachusetts all the way to Florida, beginning Sunday and lasting at least until Tuesday.

States in its path, including major… Read full post »

    
Beth A. Keiser, AP (gun graphic added - SS)

"Americans overwhelmingly see public broadcasting as an unbiased information source. Perhaps that's what the GOP finds so offensive about it." Former Rep. David Obey, (D) Wisconsin

"I'm sorry, Jim, I'm going to stop the sub… Read full post »

A little over four years ago Senators Barack Obama and John McCain squared off in a series of presidential debates as historic as the debates between Vice President Nixon and Senator Kennedy a little over four decades ago. The Nixon-Kennedy debates were the first ever televised, in… Read full post »

 
Would you shush this guy in a movie theater? Don't.

I'm embarrassed to admit that Philadelphia ranks consistantly at or near the top of gun violence statistics in American cities. And in some sort of weird, ironic twist of fate, we actually had a shooting in a movie theater here… Read full post »

Richard Drew/Associated Press

“I married him against all evidence. I married him believing that marriage doesn't work, that love dies, that passion fades, and in so doing I became the kind of romantic only a cynic is truly capable of being.”… Read full post »

 Charles Dharapak/AP

"Bob's voice, with its weight, its unique gravely power, was redefining not just what music sounded like, but the message it carried and how it made people feel. Today, everybody from Bruce Springsteen to U2 owes Bob a debt of gratitude. There is not a bigger giant i… Read full post »

Cover of Facebook page Hey, LACMA! Breastfeeding isn't shameful.

"I breast-fed all three of my children, because the milk is free." Michelle Singletary

I wouldn't touch the Time Magazine article on mothers breast feeding older kids with a ten foot pole. For me, it's a simple equation: Amuse… Read full post »

"[I]f I were standing at the beginning of time...and the Almighty said to me, "Martin Luther King, which age would you like to live in?" I would take my mental flight by Egypt and I would watch God's children in their magnificent trek… Read full post »

"Here's to a long life, and a merry one; a quick death, and an easy one; a pretty girl, and an honest one; a cold beer - and another one!" Old Irish toast

Yes, Bridget, the world's going the hell in a hand basket. Sometimes we need to step… Read full post »

"Our goal is exposing Rick Santorum to everyone who cares that his extreme agenda and his harsh and often hostile brand of politics has sought to divide us, coarsened our public conversation and simply failed to improve the lives of most Americans." SantorumExposed.com, 2005, web site defunc… Read full post »

Yes, life is hard. The world's a mess. We all have our share of pain and serious problems. So does our planet. We'll be talking about them, debating them, tearing our hair out and watching what our country --and the world-- does to fix them as the new… Read full post »

Pain has been on my mind a lot lately. Mostly physical pain but some emotional pain too. I'm having complex, delicate surgery on the palm and fingers of my right hand. A lot of nerves are involved. And I am really nervous about the pain.

I know this pain… Read full post »

"Mad Men" Wedding. My cousin had one too.

Thanksgiving weekend, 1963. Our cousin Polly, one of the "big girls" (the tier of cousins 10-15 years older) was getting married. We'd have to sit in the synagogue's balcony and be very quiet, but it was such an… Read full post »

"Go out there...and make smoke come from those gloves. You can make smoke, boy. Just don't let up." Yank Durham, Joe Frazier's trainer  (That pep talk  created the nickname 'Smokin' Joe).

Another legend has left us. Not a rock star or a corporate genius or a… Read full post »

Yom Kippur: Sunset October 7, 2011 - Nightfall October 8, 2011

"One of the great lessons of 2011 is that wherever people face pain, ancient stories serve to give them hope. That may be Moses's most enduring legacy." Bruce Feiler, author, Generation Freedom

If we ever… Read full post »