(An explanatory note: In this column I refer to iPhones, but that’s only as an example. I realize there are all sorts of other phones like that — as opposed to flip phones — I just didn’t want to clog up my writing any more than it already is.) In many ways my brother is my polar ...

Feb. 10 marks two anniversaries of note. One, in 1837, was the day Alexander Pushkin, Russian poet and playwright, proved the pen is not mightier than the sword. He did it in the most obvious and ironic way, by getting killed in a duel over his wife’s honor. I don’t know how much ...

So Carnival ‘24 kicked off on Friday with the Coronation giving us King Ricky and Queen Liz. Also on Friday I read that some CIA employee got sentenced 40 years for leaking scads and oodles of classified files to WikiLeaks. And what, you ask, does that have to do with SL’s Winter ...

Over the years, Winter Carnival has changed as much as I have, but with one big difference: It has bloomed and blossomed and is now bigger, better and more glorious than ever. As for me? Fill in the blank _____. If you listen to the old timers, they’ll kvell about the famous stars who were ...

Last Sunday I had a 1960s flashback. And no, it wasn’t an LSD one, either. Instead, it was about a universal feature of those heady days, now all but vanished — the coffeehouse. In case you didn’t know, the ’60s coffeehouse is not to be confused with a coffee shop of today. Coffee ...

I think I was destined, if not doomed, to be a teacher, which I decided to become a teacher at the tender age of 10. Of course, before that, in typical kid fashion, I’d fancied all sorts of other job. Maybe I’d be an explorer, or an astronaut, or a tightrope walker (in spite of being ...