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GIVING GOOD ADVICE, OR . . . ?

Who reads blogs for good advice?
If you do, is there any follow through?
Asking what to do means there might be a problem.
The biggest problem is when you’re the only one who sees the problem.
Then what?
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OFF THE HOOK IN GOLDEN YEARS?

As the golden years of retirement stretch out before you there are a few things to keep in mind.
Probably more than ten line items, but this is a start.
You don’t have to agree with any of them, but pick and choose in any order.
I’ll start:
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END PRODUCT IS WHAT PEOPLE CARE ABOUT, NOT PRACTICE

‘End Product’ is another way of saying, “What have you done lately?”
We pay to go to concerts, games, and races.
We don’t pay to go to practice rooms, weight rooms, or interval track training, the stuff done before the end product.
Buy a ticket for an event and you expect a competent performance?
Sounds reasonable to me.
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HISTORICAL ACCURACY? IMPORTANT, OR NOT

I’m a fan of historical accuracy, of a story that stands up to scrutiny not opinion,
My feeling is that the people involved in historical events deserve the decency of applied history.
How to apply history?
It’s all about the sources.
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MAKING THE CANCER CALL 2026

Ten years ago I got the cancer call.
Me: Hello.
Doc: Are you sitting down?
Me: Yes. (I was in the bathroom.)
Doc: The tests came back. You have cancer.
Me: That’s not good.
[Read More…]

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toughen up

GET STARTED, KEEP IT GOING

Two of the hardest  words to learn in the English language: Get Started. Most get started after they’re told what to do. “Stand up. Put one foot in front of the other. Repeat. Get started now.” It’s that easy and that hard to get started. With the reported obesity epidemic sweeping the nation’s youth why […]

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT OSCAR GOES TO?

Who deserves the Oscar for the Affordable Care Act? Health insurance used to be simple when I was young. At least it seemed simple. Mom and Dad took me to the doctor when things looked funky, like my collarbone. Things break on kids, like bones when they fly through the air and land awkwardly. Have […]

CIGARETTE SMOKE ‘EM IF YOU GOT ‘EM? DON’T DO IT

    Tobacco and cigarette smoke, the stuff of dreams and nightmares.   The dream part comes first. Light a stick and enjoy. All you’ve got to do is breath in, breath out, and watch the cigarette smoke curl into shapes. Later comes the nightmare part, the regret, the tubes, the hospital smell, the faces […]

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boomer years

BOOMERPDX BOOK CHOP

Like Food Channel’s Chopped Except No One Spits On The Pages. The most often heard complaint of the avid reader? “What do I read next? I’m in between books.” Even with libraries and bookstores stocked to the roof, the next book is still an important choice. Museums have research libraries, colleges have academic libraries; hospitals […]

LOVE AFFAIRS OR LEARNING AFFAIRS

Do past love affairs affect the future? What happens between two people ought to be like Las Vegas: what happens there stays there. Except it never happens that way between two people, three or four people, or a whole team of people. No judgements, just call it a social agreement between adults who know how […]

Climate Change In My Kitchen Is Real

  The first step to take when the air conditioning fails on the hottest week of the year, with an even hotter week on the near horizon?   Stop making things hotter. No cooking. Eighty five degrees in the kitchen with nothing on is hot enough.   Thinking of baking a polenta pizza? Maybe flattening […]

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buckle up

King Arthur, The Baby Boomer’s Friend In Need

If reading tales of kings and queens encourage a child’s imagination, dragging them up the treacherous goat trails of Tintagel Castle makes it real. Who does that? Baby Boomers seeking greater cultural meaning. King Arthur is a good one to focus on. You know the story well enough to sound like an authority. Sword in the […]

NEW YORK CITY 1980: HOW TO QUIT A GREAT TOWN

    New York City is easy to quit. Get on a bus, train, or plane and leave. Go ahead and be a quitter.   Except moving on isn’t the same as quitting. You got promoted and the new job wasn’t in New York City? You’re significant other got promoted and their new job wasn’t […]

THE KING OF NEW YORK CITY, 1975

Stoner nation rolled in the muddy Woodstock slip and slide in upstate New York. Five years later they took a shower, got a haircut, and danced the disco. Top New York City discos needed the right people managing the door and lines that grew down the sidewalk most weekends. Full of Queens, Brooklyn, and Jersey […]

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