SAXTONS RIVER-Decades ago, I took on a months-long job as a full-time babysitter for a wealthy family with two jobs and two kids. A 2½-year-old boy would be my main charge, and his month-old brother would also pass on to me when his mother returned to her employment after a maternity leave.
That mild-mannered, contented infant seemed unlikely to require more than routine feedings, comfort, and stimulation, but his brother was in another class.
Inquisitive, physically robust, and outgoing, Russell was a test for us all, and when, after our first encounter, Mom heard how much I liked him, she sighed with relief.
Russell was high energy, precociously verbal, and inclined to emotional outbursts. Right from the start, we had fallen in love with each other.
SAXTONS RIVER- As concerned as I am, along with many citizens, with our enormous national debt, I would like to point out that its growth in the past decade is a direct result of President Trump lowering taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations, and not, as is sometimes claimed,
Following is an open letter to U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vermont): While the debate rages over whether the U.S. legislature has the right and responsibility to impose the code of ethics that binds other government institutions on Supreme Court appointees, I have come up with a simple solution that...
Early in my egg-laying-chicken venture, I was told that roosters were tetchy creatures, often incorrigibly aggressive and valuable to humans only for their reproductive roles - unless you were a fan of cockfights. Hens, on the other hand, were docile food producers, and their egg-laying activity did not require insemination. Convinced by those more experienced than I, at first I purchased mature pullets until economic considerations prompted me to switch to newborn chicks, whose gender designation allowed for a margin...
Elayne Clift's recent revelations about women charged with homicide for fetal deaths, whether intentional or unavoidable, spiked my longstanding outrage at efforts to block women's sovereignty over their pregnancies. I share her interpretation that such punitive measures are acts of political dominance over women by men, as well as by women who have aligned themselves with that posture. Championing the “right to life” of the unborn might gain some legitimacy in my eyes if it included supporting the rights of...
Worrying about dying has something in common with worrying about the sun burning out in five billion years: there's no way we can influence either event, so worrying is an an obvious waste of time. Worrying about growing old, on the other hand, seems to support our doing a good job in coping with the unique challenges of end of life. We owe it to ourselves - or so most of us think - to take special pains to conserve...
When my mother had become so shrouded in the mists of Alzheimer's disease that she could no longer leave her assisted-living residence, Dad began to visit us without her. Their D.C. residence, near to my sisters' homes, had been chosen to serve Mom's advancing needs, but over the years it had become obvious that Dad, too, was declining. In order to be part of his life while he was still capable of sharing it, I brought him to our home...
Although raising layer hens was not in my family tradition, nor even remotely related to my life experience, when I, at age 50, along with members of my family still living at home, moved to rural Vermont, it was a role I slipped into almost by chance and adopted with both trepidation and eagerness. I later heard through the grapevine that mature women were known to have a penchant for raising hens - a somewhat demeaning characterization - but that...