This was sent to me by a good friend, who I haven’t seen in 25 years, by the name of Kevin Rowley. Brigid and I knew Kevin when we lived in Jamaica, where we all were teaching. Kevin was a wonderful rugby player, raconteur, and all-around good guy. He is currently in Australia. Lesson 1: … Read more
Barak Obama has some competition for the Dan Quayle Lite award (You know, an "empty suit", or "form without content". I wish I’d thought of the title, Dan Quayle Lite. It’s certainly not original with me!). Now Hannity is an OK interviewer on the radio, but he is ohhhh, soooo repetitive. And here is an … Read more
Since we are aiming to do some camping and hiking this spring and summer, I have been doing some research. It’s been a very long time since I’ve done any extensive camping, beyond some car and tent camping at commercial sites and a couple of overnighters with Tim, the cub scout. In fact my last … Read more
Well, the season is coming to a close. There is loads of enthusiasm in the St. Augustine’s fourth grade boys team. There are 14 players and hardly any of them ever miss a game. This is despite lossing nine of their first ten games. Now though, the enthusiasm is paying off as they’ve won their … Read more
Here is a very interesting article in the Post on a little-known program that seems to have bipartisan support for expansion. Making Up for Lower Pay – washingtonpost.com When Michael Maynard’s company announced it was moving overseas, the 53-year-old machine technician from Massachusetts quickly found a job at another firm. As the sole provider for … Read more
Tim our fourth grader got two deficiencies at the midpoint in this marking period, in social studies and religion. Slightly odd subjects to be deficient in, but there you go. Today he came home with a religion test, where he’d gotten a 66. It was on the Ten Commandments. Here’s one of the questions, and … Read more
Gloria the chinchilla continues to be a big hit around here. And why not? Small, fuzzy, lovable, and (for a rodent) pretty smart. Compared to our guinea pig Trinity, Gloria is a rocket scientist. And Joe is absolutely NUTS over her. Takes her out, carries her around, let’s her run loose in the back room … Read more
A couple of days ago I mentioned this big rugby match – with interesting historic and social implications – to be played between Ireland and England.Tom Faranda’s Folly: Rugby: England v. Ireland, and with an historic twist Ireland won the match and here is a marvelous try (like a touchdown in football) from the match. … Read more
This is the fourth edition of a book which first came out in 1968, which I read probably around 1970, and which as the name implies is all about walking. Or more accurately about hiking, backpacking and camping in all sorts of environments and situations. The author is a colorful character named Colin Fletcher, although … Read more