Professor Emmett Lazer, who led the Stanford University Dept. Of Physics to a number of Nobel Prize nominations, has been fired, according to Academics Director Lance Andrew “Slim” Pickens. “We feel it was time to move in another vector,” Pickens told ESPN in an interview earlier today.    The firing literally sent shock waves […]

   The moment I tested negative for Covid after testing positive for almost two weeks, sympathetic messages began pouring in. “So sorry to hear you’ll be out and about again,” was the general sentiment expressed. Since my symptoms throughout the two weeks were mild, there were no health worries; all I had to do was […]

   Carol and I joined the Omicron club this week. Her symptoms began a day or two before mine, and then we both tested positive for Covid. With all the grit and resilience of a Yonkers girl, Carol accepted her fate, making a pot of chicken soup (out of what was supposed to be chicken […]

   Dear Diary,    Well, I got a pretty good peak behind the curtain at how things would have gone in the house while I was away. (I postponed the planned spa weekend in Arizona that I’d won in a Covid vaccination contest sponsored by my health insurer, as a result of developing some last […]

   President James Madison sat at his writing desk, pen in hand, when a sentry burst in. “Mr. President, the White House is on fire!”   Madison bolted upright, nearly knocking himself out of his booster seat.   “The what?” Madison replied, on the floor on his knees and looking around for his pen.    […]

   So, what began as a humdrum weekend chaperone with Carol’s two oldest grandchildren soon metastasized into Carol and yours truly hosting a New Year’s Eve California beach party extravaganza for, now, six swarming, super-energized hormonal containment systems, otherwise known as teenagers. Or at least, that was how I was initially projecting the new plan. […]

   I’m six months old. I understand more than I get credit for, and as near as I could figure it, I was in for a time this evening not unlike the moment I emerged from my mommy. Except worse. Instead of a doctor, a nurse and what I’d come to realize as my “parents,” […]

   The main phalanx of Madigans rolled into the local burger joint like the first Roosevelt Administration, a collection of siblings, cousins, neighbors and parents to celebrate a boy’s 9th birthday. The pool table was the first casualty, cues and balls used in ways never intended by the rules of the game. I was on […]

   So there’s a joke that goes, God grants you one more day on earth and says it can be about anything you want. You say, “I want to learn how to make pasta, eat at an Italian restaurant and then stay over at a cute pension in Little Italy.”   I know, it’s not […]

Vacations give a better outlook on life and motivate one to achieve goals. Here are some factors to emphasize the importance of vacations: