Last weekend, I returned to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine for my 24th reunion. Not exactly a landmark year, but it was a good excuse to get together with friends, one of whom was celebrating his 25th year out of college. Like most other small competitive liberal arts colleges, Bates is in the midst of […]
8 Rules for Successful Gift-Giving on a Budget
My mom received a gift of yoga classes from my sister for Christmas. Mom isn’t exactly a zen-type person, so I wondered how it was going. “What do you think? Is yoga fun or no?” “I’m tired and sore,” she said. “I’m not a happy person.” Ahhh, the failed gift. I know it well. I’ve […]
I Get Dinged Doubly By Baltimore’s Automated Traffic Cameras
Living in Baltimore is like living in a police state when it comes to traffic laws. There are high-volume citation-mailing signal and speed cameras everywhere around the city. Fines are $40 a pop for speeding, $75 for signal violations. Checkered History Started in 1999 and at one time the largest program in North America, it […]
A Valuable Discovery in the Maine Woods
Last August, Nora and Pippa were in Maine, visiting Nora’s college roommate Fiona. She lives in South Paris, which has beaucoup French-speaking residents, but that’s where the similarities to its eponymous sister city end. No complaints though. Maine is truly “The Way Life Should Be,” as its state motto affirms. Even for non-coastal cities like […]
I’ll Give You My Spare Change if You Let Me Feel Superior
Living in Baltimore, I’ve developed a hard shell. Everyone has a story. Everyone wants your spare change. I’ll cop to sometimes ignoring someone on the street or at a gas station when I don’t have the time or patience for it. I was in one of those moods when we were driving I-70 in Western […]
When My Dad Almost Struck Gold
My dad grew up in New York state on the North Fork of Long Island. In 1952, when he was 16, his widowed step-grandmother Vera announced she was moving to Oil City, Pennsylvania. But first, she wanted to simplify and downsize. Would my dad be interested in buying her gold coins at face value? At […]
Fall Vignettes – Interesting Odds and Ends
This is my 2nd go at a Vignette post (read the Summer Vignettes here), I hope you find it entertaining or helpful. Let me know what you think. I Don’t Recommend Hanging It on Your Exterior Door It’s almost that time of year. Time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Time for eggnog and Christmas […]
Guess Who’s One Year Old?
This week marks one year since I started this blog – my one year Blogiversary. I’ve faithfully put up a fresh post every week – 52 of them in all. That’s about 48 posts more than the average new blogger makes it, I think. Honestly, I didn’t know how long I’d be able to sustain […]
4 Terrible and 1 Great Idea for Student Scholarship Application Essays
I’m an amateur expert in judging scholarship application essays. I’m an active member (and frequent judge) of a professional association that gives $7,000 in scholarships to college students, and I also read a lot of Nora’s student scholarship essays to give students some informal feedback. You might remember that Nora works in a school. With […]
9 Life and Finance Lessons from “Alexander Hamilton” Biography by Ron Chernow
This isn’t a book review. Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton biography has been out for more than a decade, and its been analyzed and dissected every which way, especially since the explosive success of the musical Hamilton. Which is how I came to it. Kinda how teen fans of the movie Twilight fell backwards into the […]