It began in a wine cave. The sommelier at a tasting in the French village of Châteauneuf-du-Pape recommended that we drive to a tiny fishing hamlet called Mèze. It was a three-hour trip in a direction opposite that which we were headed the following day, but the Frenchman raved about the oysters. The best! The
It has been nearly ten years since the housing crisis led to the worst recession since the Great Depression. Thus, it may be a good time for some reflections. The first reflection is that government subsidies to promote home ownership are counterproductive. These subsidies did increase the home ownership rate from 64% to 69% between
“Our goal is not just an environment of clean air and water and scenic beauty. The objective is an environment of decency, quality and mutual respect for all other human beings and all other living creatures.” Gaylord Nelson Former WI Senator and Governor Founder of Earth Day
Whose brilliant idea was this whole Spring Cleaning thing, anyway? If you tell me to “Google” it, I’ll wash your mouth out with soap. Okay, I Googled. Spring Cleaning is a ritual created by people who spent winters in torment, isolated in their homes. When it finally got warm outside, swarms of dust mites descended
If it’s April in the Flint Institute of Arts movie season, it’s generally time for patrons to see the best in world-class short films. And indeed, between April 21 and 23, the museum will present the official programs of Academy Award nominees in the live-action and animated fields. These small wonders annually prove that even
Okay, I admit it: I’m a cat person. I come from a family of cat lovers and there hasn’t been a day in my life that I haven’t had a cat as a pet. That’s why I was very upset when I received a hysterical telephone call from my daughter, in tears, telling me her
I have been reading for the last ten years that by 2035, the Social Security program will have to go through potential massive reduction in payout to stay solvent. This is an excerpt from the Social Security Administration: The concepts of solvency, sustainability, and budget impact are common in discussions of Social Security, but are
A new study by the American Psychological Association says that constantly checking your e-mail, Facebook and Twitter accounts can be hazardous to your mental health. As my back-home pal, Moon Dimple would probably say: “Well, duh. Next, they’ll tell us eating lard straight from the can is bad for you, too.” It’s true that experts
“Look at me! Look at me! Look at me now! It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how.” Oh, how my Grandpa Cam could bring that genius The Cat in the Hat to life. I did not even need to look at the book; he read the Dr. Seuss masterpiece to me
My husband loves electronic dance music. The thumping beats, the unrelenting rhythm of the tempo, the way the music moves through your body almost to your core to the cadence of your heartbeat. Me? I can’t stand it. It nauseates me. It feels like the bump of a headache. But when we had the opportunity
Nothing puts a spring in your step faster than a warm, sunny spring day! And if we are lucky, the warm spell we enjoyed at the end of February will continue on into March. But it’s Michigan, so you never know. It could be raining, storming, 20 degrees below zero … or we could get
I were asked to say something nice about the month of March at its funeral, I’d have to decline. What’s there to say? “March was like a girlfriend I once had – usually cold and frosty, but with an occasional glimpse of warmth”? “March? Well, it was good for connecting February to April, I guess”?
