A fellow I know just got a blast of highly personal, heavily negative national publicity. It’s the kind of scrutiny of a person that borders on inhuman, every aspect of his life touched on. It must take big-time courage to show up at work, at lunch, at the gym, or wherever, after that kind of […] Read More

Skiing on a glacier in Austria some years ago on slopes (catwalks) far beyond my ability, I realized that I had been humming the same tune over and over all day. When I finally noticed I was doing it, I immediately recognized it: “Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?” It was true that I’d […] Read More

A guy I know is in the midst of his first personal encounter with injustice. He’s a superbly accomplished and bright student and he didn’t get into the schools he wanted. College admissions problems have happened to quite a number of excellent students this year. It’s not fair. He’s right about that. And he’s angry. […] Read More

Have I mentioned? On the morning of April 18, I’ll be giving the keynote for the Triangle Area Freelancers conference on “Seven Secrets of Freelancing I Wish I’d Known from the Start.” If you’re in central North Carolina, I hope you’ll come. I also wish there had been a TAF years ago when I was […] Read More

The ever-cheeky Garrison Keillor of Prairie Home Companion set a new standard for home-spun boldness Saturday. If you missed it, do go listen to his song “Fatherhood“, a bebopping rendition of the heroic journey of a sperm. It’s in Segment 3, just after “Bailout Boogie.” (I’d offer a sample of those daring lines, but ever […] Read More

While I was planting verbena this afternoon, our new puppy Aura had her first encounter with the electric fence of her little corral. I’d never been around when such a thing happened and I was almost as upset as she was. She yowled, then ran, but wasn’t sure where to run. Didn’t know what was […] Read More

A garter snake is on the list of entities I’ve always thought of as ridiculously harmless. Like dandelions, cotton candy, soap bubbles, toads, puppies, primary colors, large print, milkshakes, and the board game Candyland. So today I was weeding the periwinkle and startled a two-and-a-half foot striped snake sunning his/herself on the ledge at the […] Read More

The ability to relax is underrated as an act of courage. I tend to have tense shoulders all the time. And I’ve just now come from the dentist where I tend to turn into a 5 foot 8 inch steel plank. A snootful of nitrous helps, but still I can be fairly tense. Somehow tight […] Read More

I’m ever scanning the world for sterling examples of boldness to report on, and I found some true moxie yesterday in my local News & Observer. The story by Kathleen Purvis was about Hog Heaven, an inn and spa devoted to an appreciation of pork. “‘I figured if California could have the Napa Valley, maybe […] Read More

I picked out this camel pin (for Husband Bob to give me) just because I liked it. Probably also at the back of my mind was the fact that when I was a kid my mother smoked three packs a day of unfiltered Camels and I have good memories of the image. I also think […] Read More