One Last Thing Before I Go: Podcast

Here's the segment on the phone booth in Japan. I believe it's the second segment of This American Life podcast. http://tal.fm/597

No Fair! Podcast

I got a huge kick out of the first segment of This American Life about a pre-school class where tattling was getting WAY out of hand. Kids evidently have a very keen sense of justice from a very early age. This is one teacher's solution: install a recordable red old fashioned push button phone and …

Colorful San Antonio

I spent most of Thursday last week at the Daughters of the Republic of Texas library in downtown San Antonio. The city was in the pre-fiesta phase anticipating Cinco de Mayo with colorful papel picado flags flying, wreaths on every door wrapped in brightly colored ribbons, adorned with flowers, small maracas, tiny clay jarros, corn …

Doing versus Spewing

While hiking the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, Colorado last March, I picked up a copy of You are a Badass, a New York Times Bestseller by Jen Sincero.  Just perusing the cover, back, and a few inside pages had me laughing to where I just had to buy it. Think about this: "I tried" …

Vernie

I always think of Vernie, a nextdoor neighbor lady, when I think back to forms of generosity in my youth. At first blink, she may not be the kind of lady you would expect to be so kind. She smoked cigarettes, drank (perhaps to excess), and had a daughter who brought the first grandchild to …

Take Revlon to Bed?

I spent the last years of my educational career in Austin working as director for a law/humanities magnet school on Congress Avenue. While there, I met a whole crew of interesting people on staff, including a former attorney who taught, among other things, a popular course entitled Street Law. Another gem, Ms. G, taught beginning …

Drifting #31

A loss is hard at any time, but at sixty three, I never thought about your dying. If I had planned for it, I might have suggested we indulge more (or I save more)! More hot fudge sundaes, more licorice snaps while watching the sun set on the lake with you. But now, here I …

Vehicular Move-aside

I've been having issues with vehicles lately. Not sure why. Not the kind of issues where my car breaks down or anything, just problems keeping my cool around other drivers. Friday something strange happened. I pulled into the HEB grocery store and slowly made my way toward two open parking spots up near the entrance. …

Jello Walls and I Tunes Cards

A curse settled upon the ladies associated with the Jello brand gelatin dynasty of the early 1950's. This is what Mary believed until it dawned on her much later that the true curse was patriarchy or male chauvenism—a world that enveloped her and millions of American homemakers thanks to a growing merchandising and advertising campaign. …

What Happened to Tuesday?

The last things I remember are leaving the hotel on Monday around 5 p.m., arriving at the airport and going through a long, slow security screening. At some point the three of us flew out of Kauai and into Honolulu where I have a vague recollection of sitting in a catatonic state watching over our …