Blogs

We all have bad days at times, but some are worse than others. I was on a bus in Manhattan with a driver who was new on the job. To his chagrin, which was shared by all the riders, the poor man turned onto a one-way street in mid-town – the wrong way. He wasn’t able to maneuver in reverse

When I took summer courses in Paris, many years ago, the metro stop nearest the school was a major hub. After a few wrong turns, I found the correct exit and emerged onto a very busy rue. What was quite unexpected was that this particular thoroughfare was straight out of a set for “Irma La Douce.” As I made my

Context does not always reveal the meaning of a word and definitions don’t always come from a dictionary. When I was twelve, our family took a vacation that included a visit to Washington D.C. and a visit to the Supreme Court. Visitors were allowed in for a set period of time, perhaps fifteen minutes. The Chief Justice was rendering a

When the lease on my car expired and I decided not to renew, a new world was opened up to me: the world of public transportation. Before long, I had acquired many anecdotes relating to my experiences on local bus routes. One such experience occurred when our driver hit the brakes rather hard, causing an abrupt stop, exclaiming, “Sorry, folks,

It was a Friday in early spring – I was preparing for a much-anticipated trip to France. A priority item was to pick up some American Express travelers’ checks at the local AAA office. (The time frame clearly predates termination of travelers’ checks.) En route to AAA I took care of another task, stopping for gas.  That was when things

Some years ago, a colleague held an open house for our office at Christmas time. He took pride in showing us the special gift he and his wife had chosen for their twin daughters: a pair of long-haired guinea pigs. The purveyor of these appealing rodents had not been able to verify their gender – perhaps, because of the long