• ONE SMALL STEP

    I hear my five-year old grandson laughing and think of the twenty first-graders killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. How safe will his school be next year? The National Rife Association suggestion of an armed guard in the hallway of each school doesn’t reassure me but persuades me all the more to do what…

  • GUN CULTURE

    When we were traveling in Ireland this past October, our Irish tour guide told us that Ireland did not have a “gun culture” as we did in the States. Never having heard that opinion expressed before, the term “gun culture” stayed in my head. After the recent killings at an elementary school in Connecticut, I…

  • NOT SURPRISING NURSES ARE THE MOST TRUSTED PROFESSIONALS

    NURSES ARE THE MOST TRUSTED PROFESSIONALS This is from the Medscape Medical News Nurses Remain Nation’s Most Trusted Professionals Jenni Laidman  Dec 06, 2012 Authors & Disclosures Medical professionals are among the most trusted people in the United States, a new Gallup survey shows, with 85% of survey respondents ranking nurses highest for honesty and ethics, followed by…

  • THE BIASED EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

    On Monday mornings I flip the pages of the New York Times past the international and national news to the New York City Metropolitan Diary. Here stories are written by New Yorkers about happenings in their daily life. The stories make me laugh, cry, or shake my head—only in New York. This story, written on…

  • OUT OF THE DRAWER

    Stephen King, On Writing, suggests after your book is written put it away.  Don’t look at it, or think about it for six weeks, or more. Then pull it out of the drawer and read it all in one sitting, if possible. So after the designated time frame, while the crowds shopped on Black Friday,…

  • GRIEF

    A close friend of mine just called wanting to talk about a medication her doctor advised her to take—an antidepressant. Her adult son died suddenly of a massive heart attack this past summer. An uncle died last week, on the same day a memorial service was held for her son. She just wanted some validation…