Back when Dad was on active duty in the Navy we shopped primarily at the Navy Commissary, no matter where we were stationed. One of the unwritten rules was “don’t shop on or after a payday,” which meant the 15th and 30th of each month. This was back in the days when credit cards weren’t …
I’m speaking of Patti Page, who died yesterday in California. She was 85. She came to prominence in the early 1950s; my first memory of her is her 1952 rendition of “How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?” I think my parents got me that on a 45 rpm single (definition for the youngsters …
On Monday, Oct. 19, 1987 the stock market dropped 508 points from 2246 to 1738 in a single day. That’s 22%, the most it had ever dropped (and still the record for a single day drop). It has since dropped more in points on a single day, but from much higher levels. I was in …
At the U of Arizona when my fraternity’s budget didn’t run to live bands we had records for our parties. This one was always on the playlist.
This was probably the summer of 1955. I was five, Dad was thirty. I’m not sure Dad appreciated the Navy’s designation of shorts as uniform-of-the-day, but he could have. After all, Puerto Rico in the summer is hot! From Events
I was checking online to see if any of the library books I’d requested have arrived at my local branch, and it occurred to me that I wasn’t bothering to look at my library card to see what my account number is while logging in. It’s come to this. I’ve memorized another number. That’s good, …
The painters showed up at 7:15am this morning to power wash the exterior of the house, which meant we had to get out of it. It’s washed with a bleach-and-water dilution which gives off some really nasty fumes. Off we went to Anna Miller’s for Eggs Benedict. We met my sister there and had an …
(Begin Faulkner mode) My driveway is full of lumber and concrete. (End Faulkner mode) I liked my HS junior year English teacher, I really did (Hey, Mr. Walker!). But his assignment of “As I Lay Dying” caused me to temper that affection a little. I didn’t get the allegories and it turned me off to …
Today Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me posed questions about Up With People to Gary Oldman. I confess I knew that “What Color is God’s Skin” was the answer to the song title query. Why? Because in the spring of 1968 I was a member of a Northern Virginia Up With People cast, and we sang …
Charlie Pierce reflects on the Civil Rights Movement, whose most famous proponent’s day we celebrate on Monday. He begins: I am a child of the civil-rights movement. I did not know I was one for a very long time, and I am not yet matured into a full adult of the civil-rights movement. Along with …