Hey ,Thirty-seven years ago, I was driving east through the mountains of Pennsylvania along Interstate 80. It was winter but I’d caught a break in the weather: it was smooth sailing, as I like to say. Certainly no reason to think something bad would...

Hey ,It’s tax season. If you’re only just now realizing that taxes are due on Tuesday, sorry I ruined your weekend, but shame on you for relying on this newsletter to remind you of such a pain in the ass.It’s called tax season because it technically...

Hey ,Back in fifth grade, I started having panic attacks over being late to school. That was the year my older brothers had moved on to high school, leaving me to walk by myself. It was an odd combination of growing social awareness, self-image, and...

When I was a kid, I memorized all the dialogue in the old sit-com Hogan’s Heroes. Unless you’re of a certain age, you probably haven’t heard of the show. It made a mockery of the suffering caused by World War II, portraying Germans as buffoons, and m...

Hey ,This is a story about my life in politics, but it won’t be political. At least not the way you might think of politics today. For instance, I’m not a billionaire, so I won’t ever be invited to the White House to consult on how to establish a mon...

Hey ,I grew up in the hey-day of sugar cereals, back when they didn’t even bother to disguise their main ingredient. Back then, Corn Pops were Sugar Pops, and Honey Smacks were Sugar Puffs, and Golden Crisps were Super Sugar Crisps.Our father hated t...

Hey ,Many years ago I took a job as a UNIX Systems Engineer. It was cool, and I liked working with Unix, but, one day, I found myself locked in a half-assed server room on a Saturday night with a woman who, like me, had no idea what we should do.UNIX...

Hey ,Christmas—which just happened, in case you missed it—reminds me of yet another incident with my father. We’d traveled to Florida to visit his parents over the Christmas break. My grandparents had retired in Tarpon Springs, and my brothers and I...

Hey ,The holidays are upon us and regardless of how, or if, you celebrate, we all have feelings around this time of year. If nothing else, it’ll soon—SOON!—be the Winter Solstice, which means days will start getting longer. If you live closer to the...

Hey ,Last week we travelled to Kenosha for Thanksgiving. Lake effect snow off of lake Michigan turned the roads treacherous west of Kalamazoo. Thinking we were clever, we followed the GPS advice of taking an alternate route.Turns out, 200 other drive...