Suprise Me

To this day, I still have an array of non-names for my children. Read More

The violence exacerbated by Mayor Daley’s draconian crackdown on protestors at the 1968 Democratic convention helped to elect Nixon, a far worse alternative than Humphrey. Read More

The engineers ultimately understood that the game kept Joe going, giving him energy and focus. Read More

I had a vague familiarity with the digeridoo and some of the paintings. What to expect? Read More

Let me tell you how it will be There’s one for you, nineteen for me ‘Cause I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman The Beatles, who had grown up poor, weren’t very happy to discover once they were making oodles of money that the British government was going to take most of it. Not sure… Read More

Teacher Strike In September 1968 I was a newly minted school librarian working in a New York City public high school when my union,  the United Federation of Teachers (UFT),  then led by Al Shanker,  voted to strike.  I joined the picket line. The strike followed a confrontation between a newly established community-controlled school board… Read More

 I don’t remember being jealous, but  I went  into  “mooching mode” by  watching other peoples’ televisions. Read More

On May 10, 1933, university students burned more than 25,000 “un-German” books in Berlin’s Opera Square (pictured below). 40,000 people gathered to hear Nazi chief of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, make a speech in which he said, “No to decadence and moral corruption!” Sound familiar? This past January, the McMinn County Board of Education in Tennessee… Read More

Allowing kids to name their pets leads to the most creative and special pet names. Read More

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