This month I’m doing the opposite of what we usually do. Normally if there’s a big holiday coming up we talk about it before it happens to prepare for it, or on that day so we can be timely and relevant. This month I’m neither timely or relevant because I’m going to talk about the Memorial Day holiday that we …

If you ask people what kind of age we live in today at some point most people will at least mention the information explosion that’s occurred via the internet. Today we know more than we ever had before. Average human knowledge doubles about every 13 months. Pretty amazing isn’t it? Obviously no one can keep up with this accumulation of …

“I can’t believe how fast this year is going!” I’ve both heard and said that a number of times lately. I hear people say that about all sorts of things. How fast their kids grow up, how old a certain celebrity is or how long ago a big event in their life happened. I find myself thinking and saying it …

So far this has been a pretty weird winter on the River. It seems like a lot of odd things have been happening, especially this flu bug that’s going around. I don’t recall ever seeing so many people catching a bug like this and then keeping it for so long. Not to mention everyone I know who’s gone two or …

Have you ever wondered where the ideas that pop into your mind come from? I do, quite often in fact, but usually can’t really figure it out. The other day, though, I did manage to remember where I had first encountered an expression that will probably sound odd to you. I was thinking about how difficult it is for most …

So it’s another new year and it seems like I’ve seen quite a few of them actually. Given what always happens every year I thought this might be a good starting place for 2016: “I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. 

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, …

One of the odd things about language is how certain words start out one way and end up another and do so in a fairly short period of time. How and why that happens fascinates me and I want to talk about one such word this month. The word for the month is “judge”, or “judgmental”. When I was young, …

I love reading quotes. Not just ones I agree with either. In fact I believe the best quotes are the ones that make you think. Here’s a good example and the catalyst for this column. [Note: there are several versions of this quote – as there are many well-known quotes – I’m using the one most familiar to me.] It …

This column is late because I took two weeks to get away. Week one I spend running around like crazy at the Marine Raider Association’s annual Reunion. It’s always a busy time, but a good one, and this year was no different. As things ended up I’m now more involved in the Association than ever before. Not what I had …

Louie has reached his goal weight. But he’s not celebrating. Find out why below. In the latter part of July 2015 I reached a goal I’ve been working towards for nearly a year. According to the app I’ve been using it took me 322 days to do it. If memory serves (and anymore it usually doesn’t!) I didn’t start using …