Off the beaten path on a logistically necessary visit — Why Bahrain? It was necessary for me to go to Bahrain because I was going to visit a friend who was working for the State Department, stationed in Dahran, Saudi Arabia, and she was flying into Manama after her vacation in Thailand. …

Or, (mis)adventures in self-publishing — How I came to refer to myself as a writer When I lived in Palo Alto, some people started a daily paper that included a parenting section. By then, I had been teaching in San Francisco public schools for almost thirty years. I thought, All right. I know a thing or two about kids. …

From what I see, it’s not just the Crow’s Feet crowd in these shops — I know that there are people who are creeped out when it comes to buying secondhand items, especially when it comes to clothing. The way I see it, though, is that just about anything you buy secondhand can be run through a washing machine or dishwasher, thereby rendering them to…

An unexpected treasure trove of trinkets — I’ve never heard anyone talk about being excited to visit Finland or Sweden because they were looking forward to checking out the many secondhand stores that you find in just about every city and town in those countries. I can’t imagine that if you ask travelers who have visited these…

You created part of your predicament — I taught for 34 years in urban public schools. During that time, I worked with quite a few administrators. For six years, I was fortunate to have as a principal a no-nonsense woman who had many fine qualities: a sense of humor, sense of purpose, collaboration, industriousness, and support of…

Two good friends thought my intent was to “shame” this person —

The Progress Pride flag represents what the name says: PROGRESS! — This is the new face of LGBTQ+ pride Daniel Quasar created a re-design of the familiar rainbow flag in 2018. According to a citation on the Northwestern University Office of Equity web page, “Quasar wanted to, ‘shift focus and emphasis to what is important in our current community climate. …

Some people realize that we’re all in this together! — The title of this story is the final sentence in the YouTube video that I have posted here. The video length is a total of two minutes and thirty-four seconds. …

“Woke” and “groomer” are newer words for twentieth century terminology that meant the same thing — “Politically correct” has become “woke” When you look at this definition, the emphasis is on not offending people who are members of groups on the receiving end of discriminiation. How can you not be on board with that? I do not want to offend people in any way. It is part of my responsibility as…