There Oughta Be A Law

Bill schoolhouse rockI don’t know how it works in rest of the world, but here in the U.S. of A. the start of a new year marks the date that new legislation often goes into effect. For instance, on January first Hawaii raised the minimum age to buy or use cigarettes and e-cigs from 18 to 21. Apparently, joining the armed services and risking death by bullets or explosions is a decision 18 year olds are equipped to make, but throwing their hats into the lung cancer ring requires an additional three years of maturity. Continue reading →

Senior Girl Scout Bust Strip

Little Oliver Cleone

Little Oliver develops his fear of boneless animals …

I’ve noticed that from time to time bloggers will invite other writers, or non-writers, to present their take on an incident or event. It seems like a clever idea, the readers get a view from angle by which they perhaps hadn’t yet examined the subject at hand, the writer gets to connect with a new and different audience and, probably most important of all, the blog owner gets a mini-vacay. Continue reading →

There’s A Hole in My Bucket List

0087 bucket 1I don’t have a bucket list. There are places I’d like to visit or re-visit, and a few things I want to try, many of them legal. But if that last day comes and I haven’t done them all, I’m not going to flounce out of the room in a huff, declaring my entire life a waste of time as I slam my bedroom door, fling myself on my bed and die … either out of spite or because flouncing and flinging can be dangerous in one’s twilight year Continue reading →

Harvesting The Sticks

Is there anything worse than being unable to turn on the TV without having to endure some story or sound bite featuring Kim Davis or Donald Trump? Of course there is! There are literally thousands of things that are worse than idiots yammering away on the magic picture box. But, as my fellow entitled American friends can attest, any awareness of situations taking place beyond our immediate vicinity or circumstance is typically minimized or ignored altogether when we’re consumed with the myriad of catastrophic minor annoyances we face on a regular basis. Continue reading →

What Did I Miss?

0085 meI can never remember the blogging rules. When returning from a hiatus, do you acknowledge the absence, or just dive back in as though you were never gone? Or are you supposed to hang up your Gone Fishin’ sign before slipping out the backdoor? If it’s the latter, that could be a problem for me since I generally don’t know when I’ll go off the grid until I’m well into the thick of it. Continue reading →

Change Is Good, Except When It Isn’t

0084 - moleskine-3-editIf you’re anything like me, you’re obviously quite fortunate. But you already knew that. You’re probably also aware that under the thick coating of awesome-sauce you’re slathered with, lurks a writing-idea generating system with a tendency to lay dormant for extended periods, only to suddenly spring back to life when you least expect it.
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Is It Award Season Already?

sisterhoodoftheworld_logoIt seems that a dragon of the hidden variety from The Book of the Seven Forbidden Wisdoms has nominated me for The Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. As with other WordPress awards, there are never any winners, only nominees. And I like that because when a WP blogger says, “I’m happy just to be nominated,” we really mean it. It’s not about pretending to be humble while calling on the universe to pleeeeaaase let you win. It’s about writers recognizing and appreciating each other, which is about the highest compliment we can pay to our fellow wordsmiths. Continue reading →

I’m Done Talking About My Age … Almost

0081 sally omalleyA few posts ago, I wrote a bit about aging and my struggle to accept the harsh reality that not only am I getting older every day, but that I’m going to continue to do so for the rest of my life..

Remember how long things used to take? The march to birthday number sixteen took forever, but finally getting your hands on that driver’s license was well worth it. And for a while, you didn’t even mind that you became to go-to person for family and household errands. You could have been handed a shopping list for a Immodium, Depends, Preparation-H, Vagisil, Ducolax, Pamprin, Lotrimin, Monistat, Odor Eaters, Stool Softener, Glycerine suppositories and a selection of douches from the Summer’s Eve Spring Fragrance collection, and you’d happily fill that order as long as you got to drive to the pharmacy to do it. Continue reading →

The Dating Game

0080 mystery dateIt’s pretty safe to say that anyone who’s currently single, or has been in the recent past, has tried or considered online dating. What used to be the punchline of jokes about desperate singles, has become the go-to method for meeting people — and the punchline for jokes about stalkers and catfish.

Some sites are geared toward a broad audience. They have millions of members, most of whom are who they claim to be on their profile and not predatory, psychopathic serial-killers (probably). They operate on the theory that of you throw enough rocks into a crowd, you’re bound to hit someone. Others are niche sights aimed at certain segments of the population, although not always accurately. I regularly get e-mails inviting me to join Black People Meet and Asian People Meet, despite being neither Black nor Asian.
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The Duden Abides

0079 Duden 2Remember that time I wrote a post about schadenfreude? If you said yes, you already know that I have a bit of a “thing” for words. If you said no, then you obviously haven’t been keeping up with me, because I wrote about it on my last post. And although my feelings are terribly hurt by your neglect, for the sake of everyone else, I’ll do my best to soldier on and won’t cause a scene.
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