Well, we’re having weather in Texas again this week. Not snow, but ice. But it’s winter, and that’s supposed to happen a time or two, so we just deal with it. Here in the 21st century, we do have more faith in weather forecasting than when I was growing up in the previous century. On Monday morning, I got a […]
Don’t we all love to receive invitations? Whether we want to attend doesn’t even matter. Formal invitations, e-vites (should that be capitalized?), the last minute “Want to get some Mexican tonight?” phone call. The only ones I don’t like are those birthday invitations with the unexpected glitter or confetti that explodes all over when the envelope is opened. Cable news […]
Imagine skipping class as a junior in high school and going to a malt shop for a Coke. The publisher of The Hollywood Reporter sees you there and asks if you want to be in the movies. Such a chance meeting launched the career of Lana Turner. Or try this. Your parents are working in a ski lodge, and you […]
Life-changing events rarely announce themselves in the moment, particularly at young ages. There was no way of knowing when, as a child, I went to the local drug store with my allowance to buy the latest comic books and movie magazines that my eye would catch on something I’d never seen before. It was the new issue of Mad, with […]
It may be an American thing, or it may be a human thing. Many of us seem to have a natural tendency to root for the underdog. We’re on Team David, not Team Goliath. We want Bonnie and Clyde or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to outsmart law enforcement. When the hometown team isn’t in the Super Bowl, we’re […]
The coming of a new year has usually brought the prospect of positive renewal. But I must confess, I’m not feeling it this time around. Looking for inspiration or at least trying not to be redundant, I went back to New Year’s columns of the past to see if I could strip-mine something meaningful. A couple of them made me […]
Insurance is a funny thing, isn’t it? Basically, we’re placing a bet that something bad will happen, and the insurance company is betting that it won’t. As with most betting games, the odds are with the house whether it’s a casino, a brokerage firm or a company that presents itself with “good hands” or being like a “good neighbor.” The […]
The arrival of puberty is life-changing for everyone, and how that change manifests is dependent on the individual. One of the signs that something was afoot for me was when my interest in magazines went from Tiger Beat and Photoplay to GQ. It wasn’t just that the clothes were fabulous and appealed to my budding gay sensibility. The impossibly beautiful […]
Now that Thanksgiving is over, this is a good time to get a mindset on how to approach what is shaping up to be an interesting couple of months with Christmas coming in the big middle of it all. “Don’t complain, don’t explain” are still pretty good words to live by, and I wrote about the difficulty of doing just […]
After telling an insensitive and usually tasteless joke about some recent event, the stand-up comedian asks “Too soon?” when the audience groans. Anticipating a similar reaction on social media, someone posts “Too soon?” at the top of a meme. Well, if you have to ask… Not that long ago, one of the safe topics for small talk, along with the […]
