Olympics are back ... yawn ... really! (08/22/04)
Am I the only person alive who thinks the Olympics have gone bonkers? Countless stories this year have informed us that the original Olympics were wild and crazy. Hanky-panky in those days was a serious contact sport, if you know what I mean. Today, teams are invented using professional athletes who, it turns out, don't play particularly well together...

When Sundays were days of rest (07/25/04)
Once, within living memory, it was a day apart in many places: a 24-hour stretch of family time when liquor was unavailable, church was the rule, shopping was impossible and -- in some towns -- weekend staples like tending the lawn and playing in the park met with hearty disapproval. But America changed, and it dragged Sunday along with it. -- The Associated Press, July 18, 2004...

Peonies for our fallen heroes (05/30/04)
I'll bet there are quite a few of us who remember when Memorial Day was called Decoration Day. And I'll bet I'm not the only one who grew up thinking Decoration Day got its name because that's when we went to the cemetery and "decorated" the graves...