As I write this post, I am looking down at my mostly black mouse pad, which is emblazoned with stars, rippling U.S. flags, and a large emblem of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company. And to my right is a photo of my four kids, taken on a day when they visited VOA some years ago. It’s […]
Houseboating
Posted January 24th, 2012 at 5:15 pm (UTC-4)
Perhaps you’re one of those dreamy older folks — or a dreamy young folk, for that matter — who fantasizes about a nice-and-easy retirement. “I’d love to live on a houseboat,” you may have said, wistfully. You know: loll around all day on deck with a good book and a cool drink. Toss a line […]
Looking at Leaping
Posted January 20th, 2012 at 8:01 pm (UTC-4)
So you just noticed that this is a Leap Year in most of the world, and you want to know everything there is to know about this phenomenon. You have leapt to the right place. Actually, Leap Year isn’t exactly a phenomenon, since its existence was quite planned, and it comes around predictably once every […]
Help Me Help You Help Me
Posted January 17th, 2012 at 3:57 pm (UTC-4)
If you go on the Web site for amazon.com — which, as you may well know, sells everything from pickles to garden hoses but built its reputation selling books — enter “self-help books” as a search term. First, you’ll see that there are 243,000 selections available, so the site helpfully divides the subject into categories, […]
The Super Bowl(er)
Posted January 13th, 2012 at 5:48 pm (UTC-4)
This is the story of a superstar and his sport, though whether what he did for a living is a sport has been debated since the . . . activity . . . was invented. The fact that I spent quite a few evenings engaged in it when I was a young man makes it […]
The Avenue of Presidents
Posted January 5th, 2012 at 12:11 pm (UTC-4)
Have you ever seen one of those clever little historical markers that says something like this? On October 23rd, 1846 At This Location, Nothing Happened. I could write something like that about the place we call “America’s Main Street.” Not much is going on right now on Pennsylvania Avenue. Of course, a whole lot has […]
