You know it’s not going to be a good phone call when the first words you hear -- even before "hello" -- are, "Your daughter is OK, but..." Ah, the joys of parenthood! In the 0.8 seconds it took for the word after "but" to be uttered, Dear Ol’ Dad’s mind already had rounded up a … [Read more...]

When our phone rang last Wednesday night at 10:30, I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach, a kind of Pavlovian response to the bell. After all, when someone calls at that late hour, I pretty much assume there's been a death in the family. Thankfully, it wasn't a death, at … [Read more...]

I love my esthetician. I love just saying the word "esthetician." Es-tha-tish-an. Pretty, isn't it? Mysterious, maybe even dangerous. You can have a vocabulary of 200 words or less, but throw a word around like "esthetician," and people are impressed. Try it out with your … [Read more...]

Why Great American? Because we Americans have taken something people the world over indulge in, in some form or another, and elevated it to an art form. While south of the (so-called) border, some countries have institutionalized the siesta, and while the English nod off in … [Read more...]

Like many children of the seventies and eighties, I watched a lot, A LOT, of television. Way too often, TV beat out any kind of reading, fort-building or dress-up. The daytime reruns were my familiar playmates. I could smack my Charlie Chips, slurp my Shasta and burp in front of … [Read more...]