New Shoes in the Rain

The news of Elizabeth Taylor's death this week was rather sad, even though she had largely slipped from our cultural consciousness.  She was THE biggest star around when I was a kid, and my parents both always raved about how she was amazingly beautiful and extremely talented.  As I've gotten older and seen more of her work (particularly her earlier motion pictures) I tend to agree. And somewhere along the line that led me to think of others from movies, music and books who are now deceased.  Just last night my wife and I watched "The Dark Knight," the second in what's presumed to be a trilogy of reality-oriented Batman films crafted by the talented director Christopher Nolan.  The film features an Academy Award winning performance by the late Heath Ledger as Batman's archvillain the Joker, and his portrayal of a psychopathic criminal is stunning at the same time as it's so chilling.  Ledger died very young, of course, but he left behind some interestin...

Our son and his wife recently decided to discontinue their cable television service. What's that, you say?  How will they survive without "SportsCenter" on ESPN, or all of those "Law and Order" reruns on TNT (something that my son got ME hooked on, but that's a story for another post), or "House Hunters" on HGTV? Quite well, it seems. Not only are they saving money, but since they have a toddler and another baby on the way, it's not as though they had lots of time to watch TV anyway.  And, as conscientious parents, they've made a considered choice to limit the amount of television their daughter watches during a given week. And, from all indications, they don't miss it. So this started me thinking about life without cable.  And the $$$$$$$ associated with having cable service!  But then I began to think about what we really would miss.....here's a brief list: 1)  Cincinnati Reds baseball games are available ONLY on Fox S...

Ran across this term not long ago, as I was perusing Google to see what various people were using to tote their shiny new iPads around with them (and that comment is soon to be outdated, as Apple announced this morning that the iPad 2 will go on sale on March 11.  But I like the one I have, so that's all fine).  I don't believe I'd heard that term before, at least not thrown around as I saw.  And the accompanying term of "murse," which ostensibly means "man-purse" was right alongside. Honestly, do we need to invent new terms so that a few smartasses among us can speak pejoratively of others?   But, I digress from my original question.  I've always liked briefcases, attache cases, computer cases, etc.  From the time I was a kid and got hold of one of my father's old brief bags (he was a salesman and always referred to that as his "grip"),  I've been fascinated by the whole thing.  Carried a briefcase (not a backpack) while in c...