Saturday in the Park

I’ve just passed my actual birthday, and I’m in between two very important dates to me. So at sunset on a beautiful day in the park nearest my home, it’s time for some reflection. For five years, I’ve filled this blog with stories, ideas, pictures, limericks, and whatever else has come into my head at

Lincoln would have loved this

Today was the first time that I had ever been inside Carl Schurz High School on the northwest side of Chicago. It’s over a hundred years old, which gives it a historical cache that many schools just don’t have. I found my way to the library,  which has a scale to it that I’ve never

Shakespeare and the dog

My older daughter is currently appearing in Romeo and Juliet, and the final two shows are taking place this weekend. Seeing the show performed live has made it come alive for me, in a way it never was before. Better I should come upon this later in life than not at all. One of my

Purple Pride, win or lose

Image from Flickriver.com Last night I went to see my daughter in Romeo and Juliet. She’s an amazingly talented kid, and I marveled at her and the others in the cast. In just a few weeks, they’ve come together from all different places and brought this story to life. We give teenagers a bad rap

My high school lifelines

I was at an estate sale this afternoon, killing time while my daughter was at her gymnastics class, when I came upon a stack of old-school Cliffs Notes. I wrote about Cliffs Notes a few days ago, and since then, the company that I work for has acquired the Cliffs Notes titles. The ones that

Beware the ides of March

My WordPress user name and online identity are taken from Shakespeare’s Julius Ceasar. In Act III–just before Caesar is killed–one of the characters calls another character “Sirrah,” as a term of address directed at an inferior. I took this word and added an extra “h” at the end, in order to approximate a feeling of

Life, Death, Alcohol and New Jersey

I met up with a friend recently when I was visiting New York. It was the day after Clarence Clemons had died, and since my friend lives in New Jersey I offered him my condolences. He told me that if you don’t live in New Jersey, you can’t appreciate how much Springsteen and his band