There used to be laughter. Plenty of it. Deep belly laughs in private, and muted giggles in a corporate office. A fast-paced friendship that came to a fast-paced halt. Between breakfast dates in the cafeteria, shopping trips downtown and nights on the couch learning new crafts – I couldn’t begin to understand why I let […]

Life is funny. Sometimes painfully so. Three examples from my own life… I once attended a conference for college communication specialists that included several big-name speakers. One well-attended session featured a popular speaker who addressed the critical importance of disseminating factually accurate information, especially in student recruitment publications and during campus crises. He was articulate […]

As I was relaxing on the deck of my cabin in northern Maine, I heard a loud shriek from within. “Oh, my God!” my best friend of 40 years screamed. “There’s a snake in the camp!” I cautiously stepped inside and sure enough, there he was – head poking out from under the cabinet by […]

“You know, sometimes being your daddy is not exactly a piece of cake!” My son Andy was 3 at the time. I have long forgotten what annoying behavior prompted my outburst, but I remember his response clearly: His blue eyes popped wide open and he burst into a belly laugh. I couldn’t help joining in. […]

It happened at the end of a hot, dusty, tiring day spent in the Texas sun. My family started out early in the morning on the drive from our home in Houston to the oil field in Luling, Texas, where my geologist father, Sam, was overseeing the testing at a new site. This was in […]

It was the weekend, midwinter, 1962. Dad was going to drive us down the street to skate on the pond. My older brother Rusty was already down there playing hockey with his friends Ronnie, Wayne and Jay. My sister Deb and I were in the kitchen. Two and a half years older than my five, […]

Here is a letter I have been meaning to write to the Portland Press Herald for 38 years. This is going to feel so good. Only now, instead of fuming, I am laughing. Let me explain. Late in the evening on Jan. 1, 1981, in a driving snowstorm with a foot of snow on the […]

I started teaching with the idea that I had knowledge and skills to pass on to my students. That was my job description as I saw it. However, the feisty and sometimes unruly nature of adolescents in middle school was an obstacle to the flow of knowledge. I am keenly aware of my uncontrollable giggles […]