Happy Independence Day and 250th Anniversary of the United States of America! This feels like a good time to release the first installment of Cleanup on Aisle 47, a short blog series to share ideas on how to strengthen democracy in the United States. I have been noodling on these thoughts for over a year and started getting them into organized posts over the 2025 winter holidays. They are meant to counteract Project 2025, The…
I was shopping for new tennis shoes last week, when I was stopped cold at the price of flip-flops. Are you kidding me? It’s now around $40 to purchase a skimpy pair of flip-flops?!? Not so many years ago, these plain slabs of plastic with chintzy plastic foot holder poked through the sole in three places were no more than $2 to $3 for a pair. These were considered cheap, throw-away beach or shower…
Hubby and I watched the fifth movie in the Indiana Jones series last weekend. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny was released in 2023, so we’re only a few years behind. A forewarning … if you haven’t seen the movie, there are spoilers in this article. I noticed right away that the plot is super simple. There’s the background setup, where a younger Indiana and his archaeologist friend Basil Shaw manage to get half…