Crime, Privacy, And Your DNA

The methods used by authorities in the arrest of accused serial killer, former police officer, Joseph James DeAngelo, have brought to light concerns expressed by people monitoring the public’s right to privacy in genealogical DNA testing. DeAngelo was arrested after his DNA was matched to crime scene DNA, using genetic material from a distant relative, […]

In Her Honor

Every Hallowe’en I offer homage to a remarkable woman. In that tradition, I am reposting, in her honor, my heartfelt tribute. There had been rumors, rustlings of something very bad afoot. Those with whom she had spent a lifetime, and shared in the most intimate of household experiences, from childbirth to preparing a departed loved […]

Her Story, Her Way

I want you to help me write my obituary. Sure. What would you like to say? Okay, it has to begin with, I was born on a high and windy hill. No. You weren’t born on a high and windy hill. What are you talking about? I was born on a high and windy hill. […]

I Hope You Ate Your Black-eyed Peas

Oh my stars! It is New Year’s Day, and I realized I did not have any black-eyed peas; and I am not referring to the hip hop group. No, I mean the simple, tried and true legume. I needed to get to the grocery store, pronto, but could not until it warmed up enough for […]

“A Date Which Will Live In Infamy”

My dad never spoke of his service to our country. In her gravest tone of voice, my mother taught us at an early age to never, ever ask him about the Navy, or World War II, or Pearl Harbor. And so we did not. The only clue I had growing up was when my dad […]

Engines Are Silent As I Walk Away

There are some things in my life I could never, ever imagine changing, eliminating, or from which I would walk away. There are reasons; up to others standards or not, they are my reasons, and therefore valid, to me. Until today, I believed I would be a NASCAR fan my entire life. And I have […]

The Final Paragraph Of His Story

I do not remember when I first heard of my Uncle Max. I cannot think of a time when I did not know his name, his fate, and to never, never mention him in front of my grandmother. I have been thinking about him a lot lately, because he wanted to be a writer, and […]

It’s A Double Dog Dare

Last week I was absentmindedly reading friends’ Facebook posts and comments, when I came across one that not only made me do the cartoonish ahooga eye-pop; but put me in such a state, I wanted to smack something, or someone. I read and reread the comment; no question about it, the writer, in all his […]

More Than Flowers Or Flags, Please Meet John V. Apple

There is a belief time changes things. I choose to think that time encompasses and embraces all things in its forward movement. We may speak, behave, and view life differently now than in days gone by; but, I do not think those long ago ways are gone, they just are no longer used. And so it is […]

Hope And Promise In A Quonset Hut

I have an old wicker chest in my room where I store odds and ends, a little bit of everything me; from stamps I collect and have not placed in my album yet, to books with which I cannot bear to part. And an old candy box I had not opened since 2003. This evening, while […]