Cold Storage My father and I were camping on a remote pond, one with ice-blue water, and I had just unpacked a six pack of beer. I looked over at my dad putting together his spinning rod.  “How are we going to keep this beer cold?” “Who says it has to be cold?”   My father served in the Pacific in World War II, an area where I imagine a cold beer was not the norm. “I am not a big fan of warm...

  Plan On It I read this online the other day:  “Cleveland police say an 18-year-old serial carjacker was arrested after his accomplice couldn't drive a stick shift — even with some coaching from the victim.”   This was a “serial carjacker,” an experienced hand at such nefarious activities, I suppose.  I also suppose that nowhere in his crime plan was the possibility that the chosen car...

It’s Taxing It is that time of year again.  Polley and I gather scraps of paper, unopened envelopes with documents inside, and receipts from a variety of health care providers.  Manila packages crammed with papers in our laps, we drive the slow, apprehensive-filled car ride to our tax accountant.  It is a pilgrimage that is as old as time…or as least as old as civilizations that realized that...

Recoiling At The Lack of Recalling Memory is a funny thing.  When I was teaching I would marvel at what my students would remember----and not remember.  “Hey, Mr. Maltese, you wore that same tie the last three Tuesdays in a row.”  This from Freddy who could not answer my question, “What novel did we finish yesterday?” or “Who wrote Mark Twain’s book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn?”  I...

Apostrophe to Punctuation   I was intrigued by this headline in a well-respected, big city paper.  “Parents’ Object to School Board.”  What object, I wondered, did parents send to the school board?  A petition for less homework?  A number 2 pencil symbolizing their frustration with the testing mania?  A dead fish wrapped in newspaper a la mob style signal? Reading the article did not...