As I write this, I am sitting on green grass I don’t have to mow, gazing at gently swaying palm trees, and listening to the sound of surf & chirping birds at a location less than 50 miles from home. In short, I’m having a a stay-cation experience. As it happens, my staycation is at
Articles Categorized Lifestyle
From Catalog Shopping to Amazon
As Amazon shoppers continue receiving the items they purchased on Prime day, it seems a good time to consider shopping habits from years long ago. Before internet shopping and neighborhood shopping malls, there was the General Store that sold a little bit of everything. If the store didn’t have it, the consumer probably didn’t need
Amazon Prime Day & Other Trivia
Are You Ready for Prime Day? If you haven’t already started reviewing Amazon’s extensive inventory, you can shop til your fingers drop on Amazon Prime Day from 12:00 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time tomorrow, July 16. This year the July shopping spree for Prime members ends Wednesday, July 17 at 11:59 p.m. PDT. The first Amazon
Apples & Pumpkins: The Fruits of Fall
Every season has its own special foods, and two of the foods most associated with fall are apples and pumpkins. Both are harvested between late August and the end of October, and both have associations with fall in the northern hemisphere. As the nights become longer and the weather chillier, a mug of hot apple
Do you “Spring Clean”?
There are many signs of spring: The days grow longer; daffodils and tulips burst through the soil; cherry trees blossom; baseball season open;, gardeners prepare soil and plant seeds, and in households throughout the land, the annual ritual of Spring Cleaning begins. Spring Cleaning began long before Marie Kondo explained how we should tidy-up our
Thanksgiving in 18th Century Salem, Mass.
This is a blog about Thanksgiving, the quintessential American holiday. It is not about the First Thanksgiving, or the late 19th century Thanksgiving, or the 20th Century Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving. This Thanksgiving story is about Thanksgiving in late 18th and early 19th century New England, specifically Salem, Massachusetts, the setting of my upcoming novel. At
Individuality, Ownership & the Importance of Spousal Names
“What’s in a name?” Juliet asked. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” William Shakespeare put these words into Juliet Capulet’s mouth, to show that her love for Romeo was not restricted by his membership in the Montague family. The label of his name was immaterial to her, but, tragically, it would
Do We Want Our “Hair on Fire”?
The definitions are clear, the phrase Hair On Fire refers to a situation in which someone is impassioned, wild, crazy, filled with rage, frantic, and/or overwhelmed — but not necessarily out of control. You can probably remember one more realities in your life when you felt like your hair was on fire. You might have
Whither the Office Worker?
Long ago, before public health measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 sent workers home, about 50 per cent of Americans in the work force spent their days in an office, either in cramped open spaces or small cubicles spread out across a large room. During my early employment history, I worked in large desk-filled
Making Achievable New Year Resolutions
On December 31st did you, perhaps in an altered state, solemnly resolve, affirm, or swear that you would make positive changes in 2022? Last year 43 percent of Americans vowed to change in 2021; this year only 29 percent expected to take the plunge. Of those making new year’s resolutions, 80 percent will either fail
