Resolving to be resolute ... only later Wed, Dec 31, 2008 | Add a comment If you’re like most people, at some point in December (probably when you were under the influence of seriously spiked eggnog), you began making your New Year’s resolutions. And, why did...

Tickling father’s funny bone took a 10-foot pole Wed, Dec 24, 2008 | Add a comment I am spending the holidays in a log cabin in the woods. It’s a cozy place my father built with his own hands, using trees he cut down on his own land. Being able to use a phrase like...

Harvard grad gives present packaging bad wrap Wed, Dec 17, 2008 | Add a comment In the 1980s, I worked for a man who believed strongly in delayed gratification. He practiced it in the office, where he delayed increasing his employees’ salaries long past the appropriate...

Live on edge, poke your Facebook cyber friends Thu, Dec 11, 2008 | Add a comment "I’m so much cooler online, Yeah, I’m cooler online.” — Brad Paisley’s song "Online” I joined Facebook a while back, and after much effort,...

Husband gift guide drafted for Christmastime Wed, Dec 3, 2008 | Add a comment Now that I’ve survived Black Friday relatively unscathed (having been rammed by only one shopping cart this year), I’ve been giving some thought to a segment of society that thinks the...

Writer’s on gravy train except at Thanksgiving Wed, Nov 26, 2008 | Add a comment "I come from a family where gravy is considered a beverage.” — Erma Bombeck I am grateful for gravy. This is a much more profound statement than you realize. I am certainly...

Daughter gives her aging mom KISS of reality Wed, Nov 19, 2008 | Add a comment Life just moves too fast nowadays. For example, take that wonderful window of time during which your children idolize you and think you’re the bee’s knees. That golden period used to...

Nose hair among dependable signs ‘it’s over’ Wed, Nov 12, 2008 | Comments 1 "… And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.” — from "My Lost Youth” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow My husband regularly declares that it’s over....

Pedometer proves pavement pounding useless Thu, Nov 6, 2008 | Comments 1 In one of those "What was he thinking?” moments that frequently seem to afflict men, my husband gave me a pedometer for Mother’s Day last May. I put it up on a shelf next to the...

It's scary to ponder what frightened us as kids Wed, Oct 29, 2008 | Comments 1 Halloween just isn’t what it used to be. I used to get scared crawling through a cardboard tunnel in the dark at my elementary school’s annual haunted house. I’d scream bloody...

Violation of pet peeves may lead to cheesy hair Wed, Oct 22, 2008 | Add a comment It’s been one of those weeks in which someone has violated just about all of my pet peeves. I like to think that I’m not a particularly peevish person. My list of pet peeves is short...

Writing witty, funny columns can be hard work Thu, Oct 16, 2008 | Add a comment As you might imagine, I often receive e-mail from adoring fans. OK, most of them are people in Nigeria who have $10 million they need to deposit into my bank account or people who want to sell me...