I have always been a homebody and I’m approaching an age when it’s increasingly easier to stay home. I love playing with the dogs, we live in a quiet neighborhood, and we have internet. What more could I ask for? My first job out of college had me tr...

Broken systems have been on my mind of late—transportation, public health, safety—which reminded me of my father and his system for cars. He had a penchant for cheap, used cars. His favorites were both cheap and used. His heyday for crappy cars were...

Last week, I was at the box office of the Miller Auditorium picking up my tickets and the guy at the next window was pissed. “I spent three-hundred dollars,” he boomed at the young woman on the other side of the window. “What do I get for three-hundr...

Grade schoolers are malleable. In fourth grade, the music teach put anyone interested in band through an assessment to determine what instrument they should play. Most of the girls were told to play flute, while most of the boys were told to play tro...

I hope you had a pleasant holiday, however you celebrate. We had high hopes around here. Both our adult children were going to spend Christmas with us, arriving on Christmas Eve. But we had another guest arrive first. My wife was stricken with food p...

The other day I helped my son move into a house here in Lansing. Directly across the street, there was a fire in the front yard. It was past eight o’clock in the evening and pretty damn cold out. I came outside to grab more stuff out of the car and p...

I’ve always been a sucker for get-rich quicks schemes. I’ve never fallen for a brazen pyramid scheme but I have nothing against them. It’s just that I want to get in early enough so I can score and get out while the getting’s good. Perhaps it’s more...

Marv Albert, Hall of Fame sports broadcaster, was accused of sexual assault back in 1997. He lost his job (at least for two years, which was significant back when white men were rarely held accountable for such things). This morning, I had to look up...

Forty years ago, after graduating high school, I worked diligently at playing slow-pitch softball. It was something I wanted and wasn’t afraid to do. Slow-pitch softball was my sub-culture of choice. Some people like to ride motorcycles, some collect...