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Different from the Others
I know how lucky I am to have been born when I was. I know that where I live – Southern California in general and Palm Springs specifically – gives me advantages others lack or can only dream of. Even now, with Trump and Company leading an all-out war against diversity, looking to rollback decades…
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Enough!
Ah, November. It is the beginning of so much in the Coachella Valley. It marks the official start of what we call “the season” here in Palm Springs – a period of six months, more or less, of heaven on earth: highs in the mid-70s, rarely a cloud in the sky, maybe a raindrop or…
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Spooky
It’s here… tomorrow night. Halloween. The weirdest holiday on the calendar, after Labor Day, when we celebrate work by – wait for it – not working. This holiday focuses on ghosts and disembodied spirits of various and sundry types. And we combine that with kids going door-to-door asking for candy wearing costumes, while some people…
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Carded by Google
After writing the other day about how I’m getting older, it would seem I had it all wrong. I’m Benjamin Button-ing before my very eyes! It started innocently enough. Google frightens me. That said, I do use it, first and foremost as a search tool that dramatically speeds up my research into the various things…
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Happy Birthday Gordon!
Today is Gordon’s designated birthday – the one used for his official paperwork with the city of Palm Springs (dog license, vaccination record, etc.) and by his vet. It is “designated” because it marks the day, three years ago, that the Friends of the Palm Springs Animal Shelter rescued him from being put down at…
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Golden Years
In a few months, I will turn 60. 60 !! It is already weighing on me. I breezed through the other life milestones without giving their significance much thought because my mind was elsewhere. At 40 I was too busy having the mid-life crisis that landed me in a wheelchair to have a proper mid-life…
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A republic, if you can keep it
Donald Trump didn’t get the memo. After weeks of Republican complaints about violent political rhetoric on the Left in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, he fired off a Truth Social post with an AI-created video showing himself wearing a crown, flying a fighter jet emblazoned with the phrase “KING TRUMP” on it, and bombing…
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John and his Ajax
Is it a euphemism or slang? I think it is both. We are naturally averse to talking about bodily functions in polite company. So we employ euphemisms that say what we need to say without coming right out and saying it. Nowhere is this more true than with #1 and #2, or “wee wee” and…
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Lorem ipsum
I began my senior year at St. Francis High School in La Cañada Flintridge, CA, as the editor-in-chief of the school’s yearbook. Being more of a writer, and yearbooks being more visual (pictures and all), I had wanted to be on the school newspaper, which had a very clever name. Our sporting teams were called…
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A plug for Matt
Modern life is nothing less than amazing. Take a look around the room you’re sat in right now. You are surrounded by more technology than accompanied Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon! I think that is remarkable. But one thing that is undeniable is these wonderous things which make our lives…
Your mileage may vary.