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HISTORY BUSINESS MINDS THE STORE

History business is a museum, a class, an artifact. It’s all of that and more: it’s you, me, and the guy down the road. If you ask someone about it, you might hear something like, “I learned history in school.” There are other responses to the question, “What does history mean to you?”

SITTING DOWN AND SHUTTING UP? OK BOOMER

As we’ve seen over the years, sitting down and shutting up is not a baby boomer characteristic. Never has been. No one has ever called us the Silent Generation, the Quiet Generation, or the Compliant Generation. We’ve been called a lot of things, just not those.

AMERICAN IMMERSION CLASS STARTS NOW

An American immersion class is more than how to fold a flag without dragging it in the dirt. Still, when you do get to that part don’t drag it in the dirt. No, my friends, an immersion class begins with requirements. Just as we’ve seen in old WWII movies, you need to know a few […]

PROMISES MADE IS ONE THING, THEN WHAT

Make a promise, keep it, and you’ve got promises made. It’s that easy, and that hard. It’s a badge of honor, but not a permanent one. Screw up, break your word, and you sink back into the muck with the rest of us losers trying our best to remember what we said we’d do. So […]

OLD STANDARDS UNDER STRAIN? HOLD MY BEER

Old standards are only for old people. Wrong. What’s wrong is the idea of standards, which I’ll clear up right now in case there’s any doubt: The Standard is the standard, no matter the age, young, or old. Got it? Good. So what exactly is The Standard?

WAY OF LIFE. WHOSE WAY OF LIFE?

I hear the words ‘way of life’ and automatically think of tribes deep in the Amazon who have never been out of the jungle. Instead of the variety of life found in America, I go straight to pre-contact indigenous people, who of course have had contact since we know of them. Pre-contact? Amazon jungle? In […]

OREGON LAVA CAST FOREST ADVENTURE? LET’S GO

The Lava Cast Forest in Oregon is not for the weak of heart. I say this based on the traffic I encountered on the way in and on the way out. One car sat in the parking lot when we arrived, one car showed up as we left. Suspicious? Not much, but you never know.

AGING FEAR FOR THE FIRST TIME

Aging fear kicks in when you start wondering about tomorrow. Will you be there for it? Why wouldn’t you? Oh, that’s why.

CHILDHOOD ENDING LEADS TO BLURRED LINES

A childhood ending comes in several varieties. The people you meet in early childhood often signal the end later. It might be a parent, a teacher, or the latest bully on the block. All of them are the problem, beginning with parents.

BAD PERSONALITY, OR JUST A BAD DAY

The last time you had an exchange with someone that didn’t go well and left you wondering, ‘do they have a bad personality, or was it a bad moment in a bad day?’ It’s a fair question, but only if you never see them again. If you see them regularly, you know. So do they. […]