Carefree days
As I sit down to write this, I don’t know the names of the victims of the horrendous collision on Highway 33 this past Saturday. The collision of a car with a group of motorcyclists. What follows isn’t a finger-pointing or blame-placing article. I don’t know the details of the accident. I do know lives […]
Road rage
I’m not the best driver in the world, I can admit that. A few years ago I was involved in a collision. It was not devastating, but it was my fault. I didn’t react fast enough, I didn’t make the right decision in the moment. The greatest cost to me was to replace my car […]
Hot fuzz
Summer is nearly upon us. It’s the season of skin— bathing suits and short sleeves prevail as we attempt to avoid overheating. At the gym, folks try their best to Zumba and bench press their way to beach bodies. And women everywhere are confronted with a winter’s worth of hair to slough off so legs […]
In the beginning
There may not have been a sports collector’s world had it not been for the efforts of Sy Berger. Berger passed away late last year. I was unaware of his passing until I recently received an article about it from my sister. Berger was born in 1923 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and moved to […]
Ancestral vineyards
We would not recognize ancient vineyards. They were not grown in the trellised rows we expect, but were allowed to cover up to an acre of land with new root systems forming wherever the vines touched the ground. The clusters of grapes were supported by wooden props to allow airflow, prevent rot and, most importantly, […]
Words that define themselves
You may have noticed last month that the Collins Dictionary people have added some 6,500 new words to the Scrabble word list —all generated since the last update in 2011. If you haven’t read the fine print, you will be delighted to learn of the inclusion of such gems as “emoji,” “facetime,” “hashtag” “and “sexting,” […]
Sins of our forefathers
I don’t believe in original sin. I didn’t understand original sin when I was a kid attending Catholic school. The adults in my life told me they cared about my mortal soul. They told me original sin wasn’t a bandwagon—I couldn’t jump on or let it pass me by. Apparently, I was born with it. […]
2015 Triple Crown
One of the most anticipated events in sport history took place last Saturday in New York State. American Pharoah broke from the post and led the Belmont Stakes race from wire to wire to complete the Triple Crown. The win capped an amazing season for the horse, his seventh victory in a row. It also […]
Time to fix the damage
In a time that still burns in the memory of living people, flatbed trucks would ride through a community that had already been segregated and isolated by race. Children were gathered onto those trucks and taken away. For nine months, their names and languages were stripped from them. Some were forced to endure physical, sexual […]
Political vintage
While admiring the perfection within a glass of wine, it is sometimes hard to imagine the river of politics that flows in the background. In many regions of Europe, national pride can stipulate which grape varietals may be grown in any given region. In the new world on the other hand, widespread experiments in planting […]