If I have a choice, I would like to be reincarnated as a house cat. While my natural hunting urge will be confined to house mice and small insects, the food and water bowls will mysteriously remain full, and there will be hiding places too small for the house dogs to reach me. In the…

Today I made a library run that has me questioning my writing. Anna Quindlen has a new book, Write for Your Life, and she’s got me rethinking the kinds of writing I have done and those I still do. In one section Quindlen describes “parallel charts.” By this, she means a doctor, nurse, police officer…

I am a fan of the history of England and Ireland, as those are my ancestral parts of the world. And it seems that, while our recent pandemic is ugly, it’s not the worst in recorded history. If you want to see one of the worst, read a diary kept by Samuel Pepys in London…

When I make a list of my roles in life, I include “cat owner,” and “former horse owner.” These labels do, though, give me a stomachache if I look at them from the other side, so to speak. Neither cat nor horse understand ownership. The cat knows whom to complain to if the kibble level…