4 Questions from Fiskars.
I grew up in a house of scissors. We had little kid scissors, dad’s big metal office scissors, huge shears in the garage, craft scissor, junk drawer scissors, kitchen scissors, mom’s hair cutting scissors, and the orange handled Fiskars – both straight and ‘pinking’ style. And we knew better than to use the orange ‘sewing […]
The Kindest Thing We Can Do.
Investor Rick Buhrman was once asked “What is the kindest thing that anyone’s ever done for you?”This was his response: “… our oldest son, Theo, spent the first six months of his life in several NICUs. He was eventually helicoptered to Indianapolis at Riley Hospital for Children. And while we were living in that NICU […]
In Defense of Bridges.
I don’t think I really knew what a bridge was until I was learning the guitar and my friend Mike would give me the lyrics to songs he was teaching me in long hand with his very neatly written “Verse” and “Chorus” and “Bridge.” In a song, a bridge is usually a section that provides […]
Allyson – and “You’re really good at that.”
I will never forget the first day I met my sweet friend Allyson. I was a new (to her) teacher in a new (to me) school at the start of a brand-new school year. After one particularly rough day that first week or so, I went up to the vending machine after using the restroom […]
Chocolate Tasting — and 8 flavors of anger.
In 1929, at the age of 13, Roald Dahl attended Repton School, a prestigious boys’ boarding school in Derbyshire, England. It was during his time at Repton that the Cadbury company sent sample chocolate bars to the school for the boys to taste and evaluate. “It was a tradition that Cadbury’s, the great chocolate manufacturers, […]
Robert Frost – and 7 things that make decisions feel harder.
I have more than once in this space told you of my love for the book (and movie — and now musical!) The Outsiders. And part of what I love about it is the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. When I read it in the ’80s, it was my first introduction to […]
Asking for the Can — and Other Reasonable Things
I’m sure there are so many examples of this, but both of mine have to do with Diet Coke.(Insert your own questioning hands emoji here. I don’t mean for Diet Coke to show up in so many of my stories — but here we are.) First example:If you’ve been on a plane anytime in the […]
Chopped chocolate and the version that stuck.
Ruth Graves Wakefield, a trained dietitian and accomplished cook, was 27 when she and her husband purchased an old toll house and turned it into the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts. It was 1930 – the heat of the Great Depression. Despite such risky timing, the restaurant was a success especially among travelers, thanks […]
Driving on autopilot.
I don’t know if you’ve ever done this, but the other day I was driving to see my sweet mom, who lives a few towns away from me. I was listening to an album I know well. Traffic wasn’t horrible. The weather was good. And when I got to her house, I realized I didn’t […]
“We’ll get one more.”
I like really good food. I like really good food at really good restaurants. The kind of restaurants with white tablecloths and dim lighting. The kind where the waiters place your napkin for you and come get the crumbs off the table between courses with those cool crumb scoop things. The kind where the menu […]
