November 5, 2015 Communication
IS CONVERSATION BECOMING A LOST ART? As the date for the debate came closer and closer, I took to talking to my mirror. To win the fifty dollars, I knew I had to wow the judges. Not just with my…
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One can almost smell the wet wool of his camel’s hair topcoat, the brilliantine in the hair of the gendarmes as they escort him, one on either side, to the steps of the train that will take him across the…
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Jesus – and let’s bring him into the discussion, since a lot of our concept of cheating deals with his words in the New Testament – says, in speaking to the Mosaic Law that to look on a man or…
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SOUL MATES? I married my soul mate. I walked into a community action meeting, my mind far from finding love; it was on distributing baskets to the homebound. Suddenly there was a voice in my head: This is the man…
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Dating in the Workplace First of all, a disclaimer: for most people, dating a co-worker marks the first step on the road to ‘get-a-new-job’. Employers tend to frown upon such liaisons, feeling that they take time away from the primary…
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JERKS VS. NICE GUYS It’s simple: Who does TV portray as more exciting, the guy who will make girlfriends gasp with envy and provide the hottest time or the gentleman who takes her to the movies and doesn’t even try…
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July 16, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
IS SHARING HOUSEWORK BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE A KEY TO SUCCESSFUL MARRIAGE? It must not be. If it were, my marriage would have broken up long ago. My aunt who raised me tried for at least a decade to drum…
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Just about any woman would agree: the best way to impress a girl is not to work at it. Is the pursuit of love a talent contest, like ‘American Idol’? A Kentucky Derby, in which one makes a concerted burst…
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HONESTY AND ON-LINE DATING SITES Bringing Down the House, the movie staring Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, makes fun of the purposeful ‘errors’ people may perpetrate on dating websites: Steve describes himself as 31 years old with ‘boyishly light’ hair,…
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TIPS FOR DEALING WITH MESSY GUESTS Good grief! They’re coming again? But they’re so messy! I grew up in the ‘leave-a-plus’ world. My parents hammered into my flat little head that if I visited someone the space I occupied should…
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ELDERLY CARE: ADJUSTING TO LIFE IN THE NURSING HOME Who wants to think about the approach of infirm old age and death? Certainly not my in-laws, who spent more than sixty-two years together, trotting the globe every summer and scooping…
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I love my neighbors two doors down. They moved right in and started fixing their place up. Rick drove me to the towing place to pick up my car when I parked it in the wrong place and came outside…
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March 8, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
Discouraging A Partner’s Annoying Habits Every now and then I get a little gas, my then-boyfriend told me a few days after we decided to get serious. Should I hold it in or let it out? Ever the indulgent girlfriend,…
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February 18, 2015 Communication
RED FLAGS IN RELATIONSHIPS Love is blind, deaf, dumb and stupid, folks say. If one believes in those first glistering days of meeting that special someone that she/he will recognize the signs that say ‘RUN’, one is sadly mistaken. Everyone…
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HOW TO TELL IF YOUR MAN IS CHEATING My sister Camilla knew her husband spent an inordinate amount of time away from the house, but she never thought he might have been cheating. A dedicated scoutmaster, church deacon and businessman,…
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ALL THE RIGHT INTENTIONS: Moving Elderly Parents Into Your Home It was to be a dry run of sorts. Pop was scheduled for a surgery, so we suggested that instead of driving the two hours from the country and staying…
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October 17, 2014 Friends and Peers
GET YOUR NEIGHBORS TOGETHER Somewhere deep in my memory banks is a recollection of friendly streets: returned ‘hellos’, homemade cookies, and help with deflated bicycle tires from the people on my block. We never locked our doors, and neighbors felt…
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September 19, 2014 Friends and Peers
NOISY NEIGHBORS Orchard Lane—what an incredible name for our new address! Despite the lack of implied fruit trees, the little Americana house seemed ideal for the two of us, two creative people settling without too much fanfare into our twilight…
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CYBER-COMMUNICATION: PROGRESS OR PROBLEM? Back in the late Sixties, an age ago in technology time, scientists developed the Internet for the U.S. Army’s use. Now one did not have to be concerned that information would fall into the hands of…
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July 10, 2014 Friends and Peers
NOISY NEIGHBORS Orchard Lane—what an incredible name for our new address! Despite the lack of implied fruit trees, the little Americana house seemed ideal for the two of us, two creative people settling without too much fanfare into our twilight…
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DISAPPROVING PARENTS In the old days before mankind created romance and mutual attraction, it was parents who chose their children’s spouses. Marriage was a contractual affair between elders; the agreement, for reasons of business or land holdings or dissolution of…
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Subjects to Avoid at Funerals I just walked out on two of my friends. One was dead, the other was just dead wrong. Mike died after a long and painful illness. His fifteen-year-old, Jay, elected to live with his dad,…
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March 24, 2014 Marriage and Divorce
TOP REASONS FOR DIVORCE When I first married Sally, the joke goes, I just wanted to eat her up. Five years later, I wish I had! Clearly, with a record of fifty-plus divorces per hundred marriages, the blush of joy…
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There is no question that, as the cords of family have unraveled, the number of special education classes in elementary and secondary schools have increased exponentially. Even in the general education classes, teachers start training children for statewide tests almost…
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BLENDING FAMILIES: PREPARING CHILDREN FOR THE CHANGE “I wanted a dad,” my then-nine-year-old son told the psychologist, “but not this dad”. Al had no memory of his biological father, who’d turned out to be a clinical melancholic given to periods…
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IS IT ACCEPTABLE FOR A PARENT TO VENT TO A CHILD ABOUT THE OTHER PARENT? Absolutely not. First of all, the child is in all probability powerless to intervene in the relationship in a way that will bring a solution….
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Relationship with In-laws “You’re not losing a son; you’re gaining a daughter”, goes the old adage. Once one marries, he/she becomes a part of the partner’s family, and subject to his/her own portion of the love, hate, and drama…
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