“I love you” sneaked up on me. I remember being concerned when it popped up in the culture years ago. It felt too intimate a sentiment to be slung about so casually. To me it was more appropriate for song lyrics, or for those times when one imprudently overestimates the…

I am the one who hates the shows everyone else loves. You know the disjointed feeling you have when you’re the one not getting why the audience around you is so happy? Usually it’s selective, unusual. Not with me. I am in that position most of the time. It’s not…

You’ve seen Drunk Uncle on SNL. Approaching holidays tend to bring on lots of comedy bits and references about the older, insensitive, uninformed uncle at the Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner table, the one who ultimately hijacks the conversation by disparaging transgender people, the Me Too movement, or Nancy Pelosi. But…

Probably there have been a hundred eulogies written about children’s book evangelist Frank Hodge since his passing a few years ago, but in this time of isolation and dread, I’ve been digging back in my memory for something to write about other than the virus. I’ve never liked the term…

Not following professional sports is no reason to avoid talking about them when you’re accosted by a person who does. I used to dread when a stranger asked me who I had my money on for the World Series, my first impulse being to ask if they were referring to…

“Something as seemingly innocent as a gender reveal can turn into a large-scale disaster where homes are threatened,” Fire Rescue Chief Mark Schollmeyer said in April 2020 of a theme party in Florida that resulted in ten acres being burned to the ground. …

The Amy Cooper (a/k/a Central Park Karen) story won’t die. Evidently changing her tune back to unapologetic, she is suing her former boss for firing her. I remember at the time of the incident people’s surprise — bewilderment even — about her ferocious reaction to an African American man’s request…

I recently read this headline on my Google news page: “Lori Loughlin Puts College Admissions Scandal Behind Her with Luxurious Mexican Vacation.” My immediate reaction was relief. Hadn’t that sainted woman been through enough? It brought me back to an earlier, more innocent outrage. I vividly remember the great College…

Some people have blamed my attachment to the 1970s as the reason for my devotion to the singer Linda Ronstadt, the subject of the 2019 documentary The Sound of My Voice. …