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Picking Those Bright Red Orbs, The Joys Of Strawberry Season

Picking strawberries has long been a favorite pastime of mine. My love of berries began as a young child. I lived with my grandparents. They did not often pick the berries, but we often had them to eat. Grandma would cut them up and add sugar. We usually made biscuits for our shortcakes. Every once in while grandma would purchase those little spongy cakes. I liked the biscuits the best. My aunt and uncle grew a small patch of berries. When I visited my cousins, we were the pickers. We would go out into the patch and pick a couple of quarts then clean them and sugar them to have for ...

Take A Tip From Gilligan

“Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip, that started from this tropic port, aboard this tiny ship.” This is the opening from the Sept. 26, 1964 to April 17, 1967, run of the television sitcom, “Gilligan’s Island. “ The storyline of the comedy, was about five people on a chartered boat, taking a three-hour tour on the Pacific Ocean, and being shipwrecked on a distant, uninhabited island, far from the Hawaiian Islands, along with the Captain and crew mate of the S.S. Minnow. Funny thing about this comedy is that these seven castaways ...

‘I Don’t Really Want To Be Here…’

Meet Maxwell. Maxwell was referred for therapy by his PCP. Welcome, Sir. I welcomed a handsome casually dressed gentleman who I guessed to be near retirement age. His greying hair and short cropped beard were contrasted by an otherwise sagging countenance. His gait was slow and deliberate as he eased into a chair. He refused a bottle of water. Are you all right, Sir? He looked drained. He looked up at me. “I don’t really want to be here, no offense. I’m here because my boss insisted.” Who is your boss and what do you understand to be your boss’ reason for this referral? ...

Peer Past The Obvious With Policies

This week marks the 219th birthday of the great 19th-century French economist Frederic Bastiat. It’s the perfect time to talk about his famous essay, “That Which is Seen, and that Which is Not Seen,” published in his book, “The Law.” This timeless work remains an essential guide to thinking about policymaking. In that essay, Bastiat writes: “In the department of economy, an act, a habit, an institution, a law, gives birth not only to an effect, but to a series of effects. Of these effects, the first only is immediate; it manifests itself simultaneously with its cause — it ...

Virus Or Economy Is Futile Choice

Florida, Arizona, Texas and California are among the states that thought they could reopen early. They also got sloppy with requirements for wearing masks and social distancing. Now their ICUs are stretched to breaking with coronavirus patients. And guess what. For all that putting the public’s health in jeopardy to help their economies, their economies are sick as well. A new Morning Consult poll strongly suggests that consumer confidence will not turn into spending without virus confidence. More than half those surveyed said they didn’t feel safe inside a shopping center, ...

So Much For Trump’s Love Of The Military

Christopher Slutman, 43, had always wanted to be a firefighter. He was that kind of kid, the kind who wants to save people. He was also a Marine Reserves Staff Sergeant who had served in Iraq. Last year, he was assigned to duty in Afghanistan. On April 8, 2019, just two weeks before he was scheduled to return home, he and two other Marines were killed when a roadside bomb exploded near Bagram Air Base. This may be one of the attacks Russia was sponsoring. Also murdered that day were Cpl. Robert A. Hendriks, 25, of Locust Valley, New York, and Sgt. Benjamin Hines, 31, of York, ...