I am about to out myself on how old I am, but it’s all for a good cause. Civics classes went away sometime during the 1960s, which means that, although I will be turning 57 next month and was born in the 1960s, by the time I reached middle school and high school, civics classes had been completely replaced by social studies classes or bits … Continue reading The Value of Civics and a Good Book
When I discovered the British television series “Happy Valley,” a Netflix television series filmed in bucolic Calder Valley, West Yorkshire in Northern England, it immediately struck me how disparate the heroines of the show are as compared to how American matrons are portrayed on television—if at all. Television and cinema is a virtual desert for women of a certain age. In “Happy Valley,” we are … Continue reading When Will American Television Serve Us Red Meat
When a moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore —Dean Martin Is it any wonder that crooner Dean Martin likens love to a big pizza pie? Not in my book. Next Saturday, February 9, is National Pizza Day, and I couldn’t be happier. I’m not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day, but pizza I … Continue reading It’s Not Amore Hitting Your Eye, It’s a Big Pizza Pie
Imagine being able to hike or bike across the nation from Washington, D.C. to Washington State without a car in sight. Outdoor enthusiast David Burwell did just that more than 30 years ago in 1986 when he co-founded the Rails to Trails Conservancy (RTC) and, as they say, the rest is history. After more than a year and half of analysis of more than 34,000 … Continue reading Longest U.S. Hiking and Biking Trail EVER Is Almost Here
In the recently released World Happiness Report 2018, the United States came in 18 out of 156 nations that were measured for overall happiness. And it turns out that the old adage that money doesn’t make you happy turns out to be true. That’s not to say that abject poverty makes people happy. Certainly, having enough to eat and a roof over your head accounts … Continue reading Why the West Is the Best
I’ve mentioned Dr. Jordan Peterson before in my previous articles, the Toronto professor who has started a quiet revolution of sorts with millions of mostly college-educated students on, of all things, the power of taking personal responsibility. While the mainstream media has tried to marginalize his message by whittling the core of his thesis down to “just make your bed,” his online fan base continues … Continue reading The Antidote to Chaos
If you are under age 30 and don’t come from a wealthy background, I want to let you in on the secret sauce to escaping poverty. It rests on you making just two important life decisions—pursuing a higher education and getting married. A higher education may seem obvious, but it may be a surprise to those millennials who are playing hipster bingo with relationships or … Continue reading If You Want to Escape Poverty Do This
