Category: GOOD NEIGHBORS
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“Rich, bring me the baseball bat.”
Of all the headlines that nearly made me spit out my morning coffee — and I think you’ll agree there have been plenty lately — the biggest jolt this week was learning that pigeons are being used to help train artificial intelligence. No, the birds are not helping us create homing robots (which would be…
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Look On the Bright Side
I like to think of this blog as the place I get to mix entertaining stories with a dash of travel advice, a few uplifting quotes, and a sprinkling of ideas about navigating these challenging times with grace and humor. But ever since I got back to California, I find myself wallowing in harrowing disaster…
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These two goats walk into a barn…
This week, shocking animal shenanigans left barnyard creatures reeling and caused humans to question their eyesight … and their sanity. “I thought I was crazy,” said farmer Joe Johnson. Kindhearted Joe and his wife, Bridget, live on a small Ohio farm and take in strays: aging livestock, abandoned horses, homeless dogs, feral cats, random chickens.…
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Hot Tips for Reversing Bad Luck
OK, this is it. I am pulling out all the stops. My latest household catastrophe — details on that in a moment — has forced me to invoke St. Romedio of Hohenwart, the patron saint of reversing bad luck. A thousand years ago, he was on his way to visit a friend when a bear…
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Notice Anything Different About My Blog Today?
“I don’t like to doze by the fire,” says Jo Marsh in Lousia May Alcott’s Little Women. “I like adventures, and I’m going to find some.” I was ten when I read those words, and I’ve been doing my best to live up to Jo’s philosophy ever since. Mostly, it’s been grand. However, as you’ve…
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Imagination Runs Wild in My Village
My mom raised so many kids (6) that she got it fixed in her head a normal evening meal was, for instance, a single lamb chop, a spoonful of mashed potatoes, and a few broccoli flowerettes. More than one relative has told me, “We always used to leave dinners at your mom’s house saying, ‘Well,…
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Don’t Panic!
When I first heard a humanoid AI robot had become a monk in a Buddhist monastery, I was aghast. If AI was taking over the work of spiritual heavyweights who had devoted their lives to advancing the human race toward enlightenment, how can the rest of us hope to hold on to our paltry jobs? “At…
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What Would Mr. Rogers Say About These Neighborhoods?
Ever thought about spending your golden years kicking up your heels? “Contrary to popular belief, nursing homes are more than just some kind of middle ground between a B&B and a minimum-security prison — they can be havens for the kind of rowdy, rebellious, and ribald behavior you’d think people were designed to age out of,”…
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Tell Me Ur Good News!
This week, when I asked neighbors, friends, and family to share a snippet of good news, their first reaction was always a glassy-eyed stare — not so much deer-in-the-headlights as Wile E. Coyote suspecting he’d stepped off a cliff. Because today, when you hear “news,” just about the last word you associate with it is…
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Just Join Something
When I moved to Cleveland as a newlywed, I was immediately charmed by the story of Lucille Perk, who became a local legend when she declined an invitation to the Nixon White House because it conflicted with her bowling night. For more than 20 years she knocked down pins with her pals on the Vic’s…