My name is Charcoal and I am a 3 year old female 13 pound cross between a poodle and a Schnauzer aka Schnoodle. One of my many assets is that I'm hyperallegenic and that's why I landed with Joanne and Fred Klein. We coexist and get along well and that's why I agreed to submit to the following interview with Fred. Q. What is your favorite activi …
Do you take a camera on vacation? We are packing for a trip to Hawaii. Beautiful scenery. At the last moment, we considered whether to pack a camera. We have a digital SLR with three different lenses and a compact digital point and shoot -- both remnants from a time gone by when the camera in our cell phone was less sophisticated. I dust …
A national survey by the Washington Post and Kaiser Family Foundation finds 6 in 10 women and one-third of men call themselves a feminist or strong feminist, with roughly 7 in 10 of each saying the movement is empowering. Yet over 4 in 10 Americans see the movement as angry, and a similar portion say it unfairly blames men for women's challenges. Y …
I heard the following story. As the sun came up last Sunday, nearly three feet of snow blanketed the development. Cars up and down the block needed to be found and uncovered. An elderly couple’s neighbors decided to take on the job of uncovering the couple’s cars. This good deed had become somewhat of a tradition in the development over the l …
I thought the following would be a good follow-up to Cayce’s blog from last week. The word “feminist” has been tossed around my house a lot lately. My family knows that I consider myself a feminist. Recently, at dinner my older daughter told us that she also considers herself a feminist. My younger daughter contributed to the conversation …
We had a formal affair last night, the 100th anniversary of our synogogue. I had my tuxedo dry cleaned, shoes polished, and bow tie pressed. I like tying my own bow tie. It is more authentic than buying one of the already tied ties -- more Bond-ish, though I have no idea if James Bond tied his own ties or not. Anyway, I have been tying my own bow …
From the "I can't believe there's a class in that" is the following true story as reported by Munchies. The University of Kentucky is offering an undergraduate class called "Taco Literacy: Public Advocacy and Mexican Food in the US South," and the professor behind it wants to use tacos as an avenue for students to learn more about how people can …
My father taught that "There's nothing new under the sun"and Dylan recently said that after listening to folk songs repeatedly as a young man that "They gave me the code for everything that's fair game and that everything belongs to everyone". So, based upon the above oracles I conclude that creativity is inspired by what we experience, take in, di …
We were at the local diner. Seated in a booth by the window overlooking the stairs leading up to the front door. A perfect perch to view those coming and going. I noticed the couple as they walked carefully from their car to the stairs. They were elderly. As he reached to hold her hand and help her toward the stairs, it was with the tenderness of t …
I am by no means a hard core political junkie. In fact, I pay little attention to the presidential candidates until maybe 3 months out. I don't watch the news. I don't read the paper. I do get something called "The Skimm" which is a great news summary with a sense of humor, about a page long Monday thru Friday. Highly recommend it. (http://www.thes …
Everyone in my family is a fan, perhaps too big a fan, of the snooze button. Perhaps it is inherited. The problem makes me very aware of potential technological solutions. I saw an alarm clock advertised that was kind of like that toy you bought for your kids when they were first becoming tactile – the one where they had to fit the pieces into …
As I wrote about last week, I am a horrible patient. While I am very conscientious about going for my annual check-ups with my internist and gynecologist as well as my annual mammography, I rarely follow up with anything else. I am sharing my recent experience in the hope that, perhaps, I help someone else. Three years ago, during my annual …
Eve is in Puerto Rico. We facetimed yesterday. She was standing on the beach in the ocean with some kind of colorful cocktail, me in over a foot of snow with a beer. My plans to go to Brooklyn and then to see a movie were snuffed out. I spent my day eating a lot, watching about ten episodes of Shameless and the snow pile towards the top of the s …
1 inch of snow in D.C. compares with 6 inches here in NY which compare with 3 feet in Buffalo. Having lived in Buffalo for 4 years and experienced a winter storm where 192" fell, the one passing through our area today that they've named Jonas, in my mind, is cute. By my estimation we'll get around 6-10 inches. Not a big deal for me. However, it …
Last week we visited Cuba for 6 days. It was my first visit, but back in the day my Damon Runyon character dad was a frequent gambling visitor to Havana and was on the last flight out in the final moments of Castro's revolution. At the outset it was a trying experience as the plane was hours late and when we were all finally on the plane the crew …
