Category Archives: Deep Thoughts

Raising Teenagers is Tough

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Have you ever noticed that there are very few advice and self help books on the subject of raising teenagers? I always say that the reason is that there are no experts on dealing with teenagers. No one has the magic answer to getting through the teenage years successfully.

It is really hard to deal with kids who are growing quickly, trying to deal with school and their peers, popular culture and testing boundaries. Anyone who can produce a kid that doesn’t end up in jail or pregnant before turning 18 is doing a good job. I know that is a low threshold, but it seems like the majority of kids cannot even measure up to that.

End of Football Season

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My home team was eliminated from the NFL playoffs last week. It doesn’t really seem like watching any games today will give me much satisfaction. I am not a fan of any of the remaining teams. I think I’ll just close the book on football for this year. With the exception of the Super Bowl. And we all know that most people only watch the Super Bowl so they can see the very best of TV’s commercials. The half time entertainment is going to be Madonna, so I really do not care about the Super Bowl other than the commercials. Isn’t that sad? To think that what should be a tournament of champions and have the whole country united during a game, that the only thing of interest is the commercials that will air?

Haircut

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Got a haircut today. I just needed to get out of the office for a little while and clear my head. Most days I go out for lunch, but today lunch was not long enough to refortify. I called the receptionist and told her that “I was going to be out for another hour and to forward any calls to my cell phone. It rang a couple of times, but I let it go to voice mail. I just needed that hour undisturbed and doing something for myself for a change. And I look better for it.

Paper Delivery

Posted on by podcaster

The days of having a daily newspaper delivered to your door are numbered. I remember as a kid we had three newspapers delivered to our house every day. In the morning we had the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal delivered to a metal box on top of a metal fence post at the end of the driveway. Every morning my dad would call to our dog, Lucky, and walk down to the paper box and get the newspaper. He read them both over his morning cup of coffee and then the breakfast that my mom cooked for him.

In the afternoons we would get the Evening Star delivered to the house. The Star brought us up to date on all the news that had happened that day, missed by the early edition of the Washington Post, which had to go to press at midnight. The Star also carried a lot more of the local news. The Lions Club meetings, the high school football games and high school events, and speeches by the Mayor or other dignitaries.

I do miss those days. The cable news and the internet give us the daily and breaking news, but it just is not the same as reading the newspaper in the easy chair with a hot cup of coffee and Lucky sitting beside you.