In the past, when someone asked, “What kind of year did you have?” my reply tended to center on one thing: how much money I made. A revenue increase meant a good year. If business had decreased, it would have been a bad year. After my second consecutive annual decline in 2025, I have learned…
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With my favorite team and a few others I follow out of the running, Super Bowl Sunday will be a bit of a non-starter for me. Likely to watch the first half, but by 9 o’clock my wife and I will tune in to the stirring PBS Masterpiece series, All Creatures Great and Small. Besides,…
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Second of two parts. Read the first part.The COVID Pandemic Scandals, Part 1 After seeing a mention online of In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us, I picked up the book by Princeton University professors Stephen Macdeo and Frances Lee. I have told several friends: If you read one book this year, make it…
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First of two parts Like many who hunkered down amid 2020’s COVID lockdowns and face-mask dictates, I reasoned that health and government authorities were doing the best they could in a sea of uncertainty. But after editing a book last year by a nurse practitioner who lost her license for the “crime” of prescribing early…
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The ever-increasing cost of health insurance inspired us to go looking for a new plan recently. But a conversation last week with a medical professional proved to be a real eye-opener. He told me the major medical health plan he and his wife had was about to increase from roughly $1,300 a month to $3,500…
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During my career, I’ve dealt with authors who have invested months or even years into writing, revising, and then getting their manuscripts edited. Then, with a flair for the dramatic, they insist they have to get their book published right now. The most common reason is to coincide with a conference where the author will…
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Our area’s long-shuttered Sears store will reopen soon as the county’s new high school vocational-technical center. So the news I noticed recently about Amazon producing a holiday gift guide—when the once-ubiquitous Sears catalogue is history—had a distinctly counter-cultural feel. I wonder how you get one of those catalogues? I thought. The next day, the answer…
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Food (or the lack of it) has been on a lot of people’s minds this month, ever since Uncle Sam announced the suspension of SNAP benefits for low-income citizens on Nov. 1. Before Congress finally voted last week to (temporarily) end the government shutdown, states had to stand in the gap. West Virginia’s governor announced…
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After fielding another “Are you still working?” type question in late October, I cheered when I saw this Time magazine article about Olympic gold medalist Lindsey Vonn. It chronicled her plan to return to next year’s games in Italy, seven years after she departed from competition. The story noted that not too long ago it…
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Earlier this year, fresh from another irritating encounter with what I call “AI Customer Disservice,” I would have written off anyone suggesting artificial intelligence (now so common you don’t need to capitalize the term) could be of value to writers or editors. “Sure,” I would have scoffed. “We’re supposed to be friends with a tool…
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