More restrictions, more masking requirements. President Biden stepped up yesterday, asking large businesses to require either vaccinations or regular testing. "Overreach!" my governor, Pete Ricketts, declared. "This plan isn't about public health — it's about taking...
The internet is helpful, mostly. The telephone: now there’s a handy device. But every single day I pause to give thanks to my favorite invention of all: my toilet. Every vulnerable, humbling, shameful experience gets washed away discreetly, at the press of a silver...
On St. Patrick's Day in my elementary school you were supposed to wear something green. If you didn't, everyone had the right to pinch you. So far as I can remember, this was the only opportunity to pinch another boy and not get pounded. But there was a caveat: if it...
August in Nebraska: the wet 95 degree air squats like a heavyweight wrestler on your lungs. It was my day off, but I was called back to my bar. The air conditioner had gone out again. I knew what was wrong, the same thing every time. Humidity wrung from the air drips...
Tomorrow is my birthday. Today is the last day of my fifties. Happy Sixties Eve to me. I sure didn't skate through my fifties. I fell in love, got married, published a book, released an album, and recorded a soundtrack. I learned to ride a unicycle, juggle wooden...
Millions rushed out to buy an Instant Pot, this year’s hot kitchen gadget. Many were disappointed to discover the Instant Pot didn’t deliver that kind of pot. It didn’t even deliver instant. But it is a pot. You can bake a potato in 10 minutes! That is, if you don’t...
As Number Five of six kids, I didn't get a lot of new stuff. I felt like a superhero when Mom put new blue patches on my worn purple jeans, like the Six Million Dollar Man with his arm re-attached. So it was a big deal when Dad took me to pick out a new bicycle. My...
My stairs are squeaky. When you walk up or down them, it sounds like an army of marching ducks. I don't notice the sound. The house I grew up in had squeaky stairs too. I suppose it kept me from sneaking out at night, though I never had anyhwere to go. I awoke with a...
I'm not one to wet my pants. People often say that something scared the pee out of them, so it must not be uncommon. I get scared plenty, so I guess I'm just not that way. Perhaps the best wet-myself opportunity was when I was at Worlds of Fun, grinding up an...