Sunday, September 4, 2022 Yep. I’m late. Where has the summer gone? My business is building, slowly but surely, and that’s exciting, but I can’t explain why I’m so overdue with this newsletter. But I’m still kicking! Cheers! A Literary Loss: David McCullough (1933-2022) A month ago we lost…
Monday, June 27, 2022 Gifts & Friendships As many do today, my husband and I are trying to downsize. Who needs all that stuff, anyway? I’m having difficulty trying to understand why people are so set on giving me stuff. I assume that they want to acknowledge their regard for…
Tuesday, May 31, 2022 Memorial Day Musings For sixteen years, I have participated in the Memorial Day ceremonies in the town of Millis, a small town in south-central Massachusetts. In 2006, Mark Slayton, a fellow Civil War reenactor and member of Millis’s American Legion Post 208, asked the small corps…
Only As Smart As Your Sources? Last year, a local all-news radio station introduced a new slogan that puzzled me. “You’re only as smart as your sources.” The message is obvious: “We are your best news source, so tune in to us.” But day after day, the slogan kept poking…
Be Who You Are To Oscar Wilde this quotation is usually attributed: “Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.” This is amusing, but it really resonates, doesn’t it? Our culture has, does, and always will try to control who and what we are. It sets standards, and if we adhere…
Friday, February 4, 2022 Natterings Wow! Am I way behind, or what? My natterings today warrant little attention, but maybe by recounting some of them here, I can set them aside. Maybe. Of course, Christmas doesn’t help one maintain a schedule at all. Distractions unrelated to the holidays always…
December 6, 2021 The Value of What Has Little Value I got to thinking about what’s significant and what’s not. What I might consider has no value may have value to someone else. As the old adage goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” In the bit below about…
Sunday, October 24, 2021 Everything In Its Time It’s curious how often people who have acquired one of my books apologize, when I run into them, for not having read it yet. I have no way of knowing if they have or haven’t, since I’m not joined to them at…
Monday, October 4, 2021 What’s the Rush? September traditionally is a totally crazy month in my world, with no time to go to the bathroom. How on earth did my husband and I find time to get married in September? (Thirty-six years ago! Huzzah!) But in more recent years I’ve…
Excerpts from Chapter XIII: An Island of Water, pp. 324-327 The Arcturus Adventure William Beebe Director, Dept. of Tropical Research First Oceanographic Expedition of the New York Zoological Society P. Putnam’s Sons, New York and London, The Knickerbocker Press 1926 [The vessel Arcturus has anchored for the night in a…
