Connie and Billy A Christmastime Story This is the story of Connie and Billy. Don't be fooled by the names. Connie was a guy and that’s an important fact. Billy was a lady ... and that’s important, too. They spent decades together. That’s what matters most. They met in church ... on Christmas Eve. … Continue reading Connie and Billy ~ A Christmastime Story
The recent court ruling on ObamaCare jump-started a clever friend of mine … a Baltimoreon name Mike Sackett … a silky-witty writer from The Old Line State of Maryland. “With this stunning rebuke of Obama's dubiously-named Affordable Care Act, with his war on coal and opposition to the Keystone Pipeline crushed, with his Paris Climate … Continue reading The President Who Wasn’t
I wonder if you need shoes in Heaven. One of the most splendid teachers I never met is gone. Never once met her. Never heard her voice ... or studied her face. Can't tell you how tall she was ... or how she styled herself. But I will forever wonder what sort of shoes she wore. … Continue reading Good Shoes Take You Good Places
Guest Post By Cindy Curcio Reflections on the Passing of George H. W. Bush There is substantial chatter on the airwaves regarding the passing of our former President, George Herbert Walker Bush, as there should be. A former President of our country has been laid to rest after a long life of notable public service. … Continue reading Reflections on the Passing of George H. W. Bush – Guest Post
Paris is burning … and the Arc de Triomphe is all sooty. I should care, but I don’t. “A third weekend of nationwide protests … largely made up of working-class people angry about a planned increase in fuel taxes and their dwindling purchasing power …” I just can’t care about France … or Europe. Not … Continue reading Up in Smoke
I don’t know how we can like ourselves very much. Not in this moment. Everything’s so disordered and ill-tempered. And lots seem very okay with this ... all right with this bankruptcy of common sense. There’s this casualness in how we mistreat sacred stuff that's made us special. How we desecrate … and adulterate … indispensable … Continue reading Things Fall Apart
The Original Thanksgiving Proclamtion After the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving Day is our most observed national holiday. The tradition harks back to the colonists of Plymouth Plantation, Massachusetts, who, after their first harvest, held a celebratory feast in the fall of 1621—a three-day celebration in which local Native American chiefs and tribesmen participated. But the … Continue reading A Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer ~
I was startled to be there … on the floor. Flattened like a beaten boxer. Surrounded by chair legs and sofa bottoms. Gawked at by books that had been leaning on each other for years. On my back in the autumn dusk. Mattressed on my favorite carpet … gazing up at recessed-lights that looked … Continue reading The Squish
GUEST POST “My Twenty Three Years As An Orphan” ~ by Mike SackettI can’t decide if I’m seeing my old life as Walt and Mary’s late-hatching egg through smoke, fog or dust…but something is making those years hazy, so it might be all three. After popping out five Depression-era peeps in as many years, Mom and … Continue reading “What Will They Think of Next?” NewFangledness
Ten thousand six hundred nineteen miles is a long way. But it’s not so long if it delivers you home … for the first time in three years. Not such an odyssey if it leaves behind a war ... and lands you on the other side of the world … back in the arms … Continue reading Home
Missives Worth Reading 