I have never followed the NCAA tournament except for this year. Like 11 million others my step-son, Ryan, joined Warren Buffet’s $1 billion perfect bracket challenge. Unlike  most others, however, at the end of the first day Ryan and only 500,000 others were still in the game.

We had spent a full day in the City.  Our last stop was at Chelsea Market to buy some fish to take home for dinner.  We got back just in time for the start of the Syracuse game and had our remote handy to switch back and forth to the Wisconson game, the schools that two of our children went to.  Little did we know as we sat eating our dinner in front of the TV in the living room that we had just done something to doom one of those teams!

Recently the College Board chose to make the essay portion of the SAT exam optional. I found myself dumbfounded. Our country's level of education is on the decline.   Why remove the essay? We rank about 14th in world in basic skills and don't appear to be improving at all while countries like Estonia and Poland are passing us by. I looked a bit closer and found that part of the motivation to take it out is a direct result of competition.  

Whenever someone takes a shot at me and then excuses his or herself by saying " I was just kidding", I respond immediately that my father taught me that nothing is ever said in jest.One must learn that there's always a germ of truth in that "joke"or jestand it is that germ of truth that must concern one's self and must be paid attention to.Words to the wise!Having posited this absolute verity, I must explain that I am the exception to the rule because I have a left-handed person's sense of humor which is often misunderstood.

I like to vacation in familiar places. We have a time share in Aruba and, at last count, have been back seven times (plus a few times before we got the time share). Our son and daughter-in-law, Jason and Alyssa have been with us seven times -- and their son, our grandson, Jackson, was with us for the first time (but certainly not last) two weeks ago.

I remember when they "buried" the N-word.  It was a quaint little ceremony headed up I believe by the illustrious Rev. Al Sharpton (back before he was little more than a giant head on a stick).  There really wasn't too much serious objection, after all I don't think there are too many people in favor of using the word these days.  There was a part of it , though, that was somewhat unsettling.  After all, as bad as it is, it really is just a word.    

According to Facebook I have been a member since 2009. I cannot believe that I have actually been using Facebook for five years because I still feel as if I don’t know what I am doing.