Grammar Grouch

Feb 18, 2026–If I had to learn to read today, I would be illiterate. Like most of you, I learned to read and write a lifetime ago. I’ve been a teacher, author, columnist, songwriter, and I even wrote letters in cursive when stamps only had presidents on them....

Hearing Voices

Feb 11, 2026–Do you have a recording of your parents’ voices? I recently followed a story of a radio DJ trying to track down any recording of his late father’s voice. It turned into a quest worthy of the Holy Grail. His last sample was on a phone answering machine,...

My ‘Stop Doing’ List

Feb 4, 2026–I love making and keeping a “To Do” list. Little is more satisfying than changing a “to do” to “done.” But I have discovered a more important list–a “Stop Doing” list. This concept was formed while I was working in an administrative capacity. During a...

Wisdom that Works

Jan 28, 2026–Once you’ve reached midlife, you are the least stupid you have ever been or ever will be. That’s why every person who has passed that milestone should write down wisdom from their life that worked for them, and that might work for future generations. I am...

Things inside of things

Some wily entrepreneur in the Old West understood marketing. This coffee bean supplier wanted to make his beans stand out among the grizzled cowboys and settlers who swarmed up the cattle trails and carved out the west. He made and sold Arbuckles’ coffee, one of the...

Cleanup on Aisle 2025

Jan 7, 2025–Another year, another list of random observations: Why do we personify years? January 1st is literally just the next day. Yet we speak about a calendar year as if it were a character in a 1940s radio play. At Walmart on Black Friday I saw many people...