Category: Information & Education

Historian, David McCullough, was recently asked about writing letters: “We don’t write letters on paper anymore. How will this affect the study of history?” His response was interesting… “The loss of people writing – writing a composition, a letter or a report – is not just the loss for the record. It’s the loss of the process of working your thoughts out on paper, of having an idea that you would never have had if you weren’t writing. And that’s a handicap. People I research were writing letters every day. That was calisthenics for the brain.” Yes, one might argue, that our society does write everyday. But take a look at the quality of text messages and emails being produced. You’ll soon realize that we’re not exercising our brain as…

Here's an example of why lawyers get a bad name. Let’s say you’re one of those guys who finds it gentlemanly to walk a female co-worker, girlfriend or maybe even your sister back to their cars after meeting up with them for dinner at a local eatery. Dark, eerie parking lots can be a little frightening for some, especially if you’re a fan of the popular crime drama “Criminal Minds.” And while you hope muggers will never approach you during this gentlemanly act, we live in a very unpredictable world where mischievous people lurk behind every corner - literally. I read a story online the other day where a young man was walking his girlfriend to her car late one evening in a darkened parking lot. Unfortunately, the pair was…

Though my last name is pronounced the same with a similar spelling, I have no familial relation to the infamous midnight rider Paul Revere. Shame really, for I’d love to have capitalized on that. Paul Revere's been in the news of late as Alaska’s former governor, Sarah Palin, was recently quoted as saying that his April 1775 ride was actually to “warn the British.” Silly girl, everyone knows he was warning the patriots that “The British are coming!” Of course Democrats and journalists have been having a field day with this blunder, but I offer you the following information. A 2000 study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni found that the majority of seniors at the nation’s very best colleges could not identify words from the Gettysburg Address…

The cover story on a New Jersey daily newspaper highlighted the growing number of tent cities popping up all over the state. For those of you who don’t know, they’re a grouping of families and individuals who cannot afford adequate housing – gathered in open fields and wooded areas calling the inside of a tent home. Some of the insensitive bores I work with read the article and their immediate response was, “They’re lucky, they don’t have to pay taxes.” Lucky? Are you kidding me? How do you figure that spending your days living in tent cities with no clean running water or heat lucky? “Insensitive bores” might actually be too tame for them. A new term has been coined for the increasing number of homeless Americans across this country…

Though politics can be a dangerous subject to talk about in mixed company, you’ll never hear me deny that I just don’t like the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie. In short, he’s pompous, arrogant and uses the same bullying practices found on playgrounds across the country to scare people into doing what he wants. That’s not true leadership no matter how you try and spin it. He continues to tell residents how we should share in the sacrifices this state needs to make in order to become more fiscally responsible, and truthfully, many residents are already struggling just to get by. Perhaps you could understand his continued plea for New Jersey residents to tighten their own belts and bare some of the burden if he were doing the same,…