When someone is telling you about a death in the family, or when you're at a wake or a funeral, try not to let your personal feelings about death get in the way. The friends and family of a bereaved person often see the death as a horrifying thing and make...
When trying to give emotional support to someone experiencing the death of a loved one, don't: - express your gratitude that you aren't going through a similar experience. - mention that hearing of this death reminds you to check your own health. - turn to your...
When a dying wish conflicts with the needs of the living, which should take priority? Some extreme cases would be pretty easy to call: if a person's last wish is that a friend should go murder her ex-husband, the friend might not have trouble disobeying. But what...
May has always been a crappy month for me. I dislike the loss of winter with its quiet, soothing cover of clouds and coldness. I'm also prone to spring allergies, but mostly I don't react well to Mother's Day. Or at least I didn't in the past. For a long time I've...
A friend described looking at this photo as feeling like "a kick in the stomach!" How about it Gen X? Is this disturbing or what?
I'm proud to be a member of AARP, which I've been looking forward to for years. Now I really feel grown up. The AARP newsletters sometimes have very intriguing articles and right now I'm focused on Bronnie Ware's Top Regrets of the Dying, first posted in February...
Previous post on weight & health: Doctor's response to my weight gain On Friday morning a co-worker asked when I was due. Even with my prosopagnosia and a staff of over 500, I felt sure the two of us had never properly met because I pretty much have every...
In a talk he gave at Cornell University in 1993, Chicano actor Edward James Olmos said that seeing movie while it's in the theater is like casting a vote. Ever since, I've tried to get myself to the theater when I feel a movie is very important, in spite of the motion...
You know when you're walking along, minding your own business and some guy you've never seen before tells you to smile? Right out of the blue, this stranger looks at you and says something like, "Smile! It's not so bad." You know that? If you're a man, your answer is...
Happy Fat Tuesday! I made cupcakes for work. How about you? Let us all have a day of indulgence and then lounge around like my dog. Here he is doing some dog yoga: Enjoy the day! Worry tomorrow.
Mexicans make tamales at Christmas.
[I originally posted this on January 5, 2006 and it's my tradition to re-post it every December.] Here’s my summary of the History Channel's Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas which I find extremely relevant to the annual discussion of the true meaning of...
ArkansasMatters.com ran this article on November 19th: "Charlie Brown Christmas Show Causes Church and State Controversy." It reports that a Little Rock church was performing matinees of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" for local schools. The schools sent permission slips...
Many people build their careers in the restaurant industry and they're in it for life. They pay their medical bills, rent, mortgage, children's college, etc. with the money they make from bussing tables, serving tables, tending bar, etc. The majority of their income...
I shouldn't like FX's second season of American Horror Story. I'm sensitive to negative portrayals of people with mental illness and can't stand when emotional and personality disorders are associated with violence and horror. But this is a hard show for me to...